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A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
BEING PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
AS NAKEATED BY
NUNSOWE GKEEN, ESQ., F.E.A.S., F.S.S.,
Ex V.-P.S.S.U.D.S.
(ex vice-president of the shoreditch and spitalfields
UNIVERSAL discussion SOCIETY).
At our pace of progress, as I am always saying, what are things to come to
a thousand years hence ? — Author, chap. i. et passim.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, MAESTON, SEAKLE & EIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.
1882.
{All rights resei-ved.)
f S Z-
^7
LONDON :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM GLOMES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFOKD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY AND QUITE INDISPENSABLE TO ALL THE
CHAPTERS THAT FOLLOW.
TAGE
Of myself and my wife ... ... ... ... ... 1
My most particular intimates, White and Brown ... 3
Formation of the great S.S.U.D.S., and discussions on questions
of the day ... ... ... ... ... 5
My additional intimates, Black, Yellowly, and Reed 6
Black, and science questions : Electricity and the Cross-
Electric ... ... ... ... ... 9
Yellowly on social and political questions ... ... 9
On democracy and progress ... ... ... 10
On ti'ade unions ... ... ... ... 11
On future amelioration of labour conditions ... 12
On social advance, and some present remediable defects 1 4
On some great lines of attainable progress ... 15
Reed, and religious questions... ... ... ... 17
Reasonableness and common sense in religion ... 17
Righteousness and usefulness of life ... ... 19
Extreme views : Eternal hell .. . ... ... 19
The Sunday question: Sabbath v. Lord's Day ... 21
" Answers to prayer " ... ... ... 24
The "praising" of God ... ... ... 24
Sensational religion ... ... ... ... 25
A popular revival preacher ... ... ... 26
The future of good but sceptical men ... ... 27
a 3
VI
CONTENTS.
Gray and Mormonistn ... ... ... ... 28
A proselytizing scrape ... ... ... 31
Minor polemics : White and Brown ... ... ... 33
Forecasting the future. At our pace of progress what are
things to come to in the future ? ... ... ... 34
My own general forecast ... ... ... ... 35
Black's scientific forecast ... ... ... 36
Yellowly's social and political forecast ... ... 38
Eeed's religious forecast ... ... ... 40
Gray's Mormon forecast ... ... ... ... 41
Brown's remarkable dream ... ... ... ... 41
A memorable holiday trip ... ... ... ... 42
CHAPTER II.
IT IS INDEED NO OTHEE THAN A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE A
BUSINESS EXPEDITION — HOME AND FOREIGN TRADING, AND
THE HOME TOUR — THE CHIEF HARDWARE AND ENERGY
DISTRICTS OF OUR DAY.
What travelling is in these advanced times
The crowd of our modern life ... ... ...
A scientific experiment quite in character ...
Cabs, cab-stands, and cab-travel
Our modern money
Our first business destination
Subterranean life, and the " sub " system ...
The Stock Exchange of these days — Eise and progress of the
great BuUings
45
46
47
4S
51
53
54
55
CHAPTER III.
LIFE AND BUSINESS IN THE TWENTY-NINTH CENTURY.
A great subterranean abode ...
A subterranean landscape
The hardware and Energy trade in a.d. 2882
A glance also at the provision trade, and the world's great food
question ...
Retrospective view of the trade
Yalue and resource of the dead to the living
59
61
63
65
66
68
CONTENTS. Vll
CHAPTER lY.
OUR FOREIGN BUSINESS TOUR : THE OUTER CIRCUIT.
PAGB
Mj various plans and projects of travel ... ... 73
A bargain with old Brown ... ... ... ... 74
A glimpse of the great Ballings of the Stock Exchange 75
Yet one more of my projects ... ... ... ... 76
OfEtoMars ... ... ... ... ... 77
Voyaging incidents, safeguards, and accommodations ... 77
CHAPTER Y.
A RETROSPECT OF A THOUSAND YEARS.
Some chief causes of our great progress —
Great increase of population ... ... ... 83.
The woman as well as the man at work for the world ... 84
Universal education of the people ... ... ... 85
A new page turned in university life ... ... ... 88
Cessation of war : how and when it came about ... 89
Trades' union reform, and advancing condition of our
working classes ... ... ... ... 90
A word on co-operation — its e onomies and progress ... 92
The great Pai'liamentary block, and its final ciu'e by the
" Special Hansard " ... ... ... ... ... 9i
State aid to progress by means of Special Trusts ... 97
How we reduced the interest rate, and finally extinguished
our National Debt ... ... ... ... 100
State assistance free to the poorer youth ... ... 104
Progress by speciality of study ... ... ... 105
Progress consummation for the time, in the grand discovery
of the Cross-Electric ... ... ... ... 107
CHAPTER YI.
A CHAPTER ON SOME EARLY BUT HIGH POLITICAL CHANGES.
Political and constitutional development, and the Common-
wealth of England ... ... ... ... ... 112
The story as to how war came at last to its end ... 114
An incident out of war-cessation ... ... ... ... 122
The map of Em-ope after the nineteenth century ... 122
VUl
CONTENTS.
CHAPTEK YII.
THE NINETEETH CENTURY. WHAT COULD STILL BE DONE "WITH
ITS SMALL REMAINDER.
What befell court dress ...
Our most exemplary episcopate
Special trusts : The great scheme of a resanitated London
Reception of the project...
The opposition
Mode of the work as to finance
An episode of the project
General plan of the work
Some chief features
Concentration of the public offices
Other special trusts : the national drama
Housekeeping economy for the masses — Mechanics' hotels
Is o longer " Ireland our difficulty "
CHAPTER VIII.
PAGE
129
129
132
133
134
135
137
138
139
144
146
149
152
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY : SOME OF ITS PROMINENT FEATURES.
A passing Transatlantic family jar ... ... ... 156
Club life after the nineteenth century ... ... ... 158
Women's clubs ... ... ... ... ... ... 162
A trade union crisis of the twentieth century ... ... 165
Social resanitation : a disposition to take society's evils
thoroughly in hand ... ... ... ... 168
1. Our new policy with crime ... ... ... 170
2. As to begging and general vagabondage ... 173
Yet one more step of advance and reform ... ... ... 1 76
An enemy still capturing our territory, even after the entire
cessation of war ... ... ... ... ... 177
A trade union strike at the end of the twentieth century 179
CHAPTER IX.
THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY : ITS ILLUSTRATION BY A PROGRESS
OF PRINCIPLES.
Our National Church, as it appeared and fared in this twenty-
first century of our era ... ... ... ... 182
The United National Trades Union, and its first centenary of
the death of Yellowly ... ... ... 185
CONTENTS. IX
PAGE
Address of its president ... ... ... ... 185
The Union's reforms ... ... ... ... 186
Its political intervention and results. Some chief political
questions of the day ... ... ... ... 187
A new order of rank, national and international . . . 192
' Woman's position in society ... ... ... 195
Aspects and prospects : our country and the world in this
the twenty-first century ... ... ... 196
Our empire as it emerged into this twenty -first century 199
CHAPTER X.
THE TWENTY-SBCOND CENTURY : ITS ILLUSTRATION BY OUR
SOCIAL WAYS.
Marriage in the twenty-second century ... ... ... 204
State intervention inmarriage ... ... ... 206
Marriage settlements ... ... ... ... 208
Divorce in the twenty-second century ... ... 209
Two typical instances ... ... ... ... 210
A new " International " in this twenty-second century ... 213
CHAPTER XI.
THE TWENTY-THIRD CENTURY : ITS SOCIAL ASPECTS.
A completing social resanitation ... ... ... ... 225
The Selphnil family ... ... ... ... 228
CHAPTER XII.
THE TWENTY-FOURTH CENTURY : ITS RELIGIOUS ASPECTS.
The great Mormon Church ... ... ... ... 234
Its trials ... ... ... ... ... 235
Its triumphs ... ... ... ... 236
Other or lesser Churches. The old Roman ... ... 239
The Anglican ... ... ... ... ... 240
Others, various and conflicting ... ... ... 241
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE DAWN OF THE TWENTY. FIFTH CENTLTRl' : ITS GENERAL ASPECTS.
PAGE
New and enlarged career for our English race ... ... 247
Old England's last premier ... ... ... 249
His portentous session ; inauguration address ; the features
and signs of his time ... ... ... ... 251
Some striking features of his time ... ... ... 252
The Crown of Labour ... ... ... ... 255
CHAPTER XIV.
SCIENCE PKOGEESS OVER A THOUSAND YEARS' RETROSPECT.
PART I. FROM THE DISCOVERY OF THE CROSS-ELECTRIC TO
THAT OF THE DUPLICATION OF THE CROSS.
The Cross-Electric Principle ... ... ... ... 264
Electro-Light speed ... ... ... ... ... 265
The Duphcation ... ... ... ... ... 265
Extreme simplicity when knowm ... ... ... 268
Grand results from the discovery ... ... ... 269
Our " 'jDrentice hand " in missives to outside worlds . . . 270
A missive from outside to ourselves ... ... ... 272
CHAPTER XV.
SCIENCE PROGRESS IN A THOUSAND YEARS' RETROSPECT. — PART II.
FROM DISCOVERY OF THE DUPLICATION OF THE CROSS, UP
TO DISCOVERY OF THE REDUPLICATION.
Reproduction of successive past aspects of our earth ... 276
Curious questions and solutions, scientific and historical . . . 280
Intercourse with worlds outside : the " Higher Life " of the
Universe ... ... ... ... ... 282
Some special outside acquaintances ... ... ... 284
The condition of the press in these our modern times . . . 287
An editor of the time ... ... ... ... 289
Oui' outside-world acquaintance — Coloured-sun systems ... 290
Effects of solar colour ... ... ... ... 292
A ternary coloured system. Blue, Green, Red, and respec-
tive peculiarities of people ... ... ... 293
Its striking midnight skies, and effect upon the mind 296
CONTENTS. XI
CHAPTER XYI.
SCIENCE PEOGRESS IN A THOUSAND YEARS' RETROSPECT. — PART III.
GRAND CLIMAX OF THE DISCOVERY, BY BLACK, OF THE
REDUPLICATION.
PAGE
Black's grand discovery : what was it ? ... ... 303
Black's practical application : first outside voyage . . . 304
To and from the moon : preparations ... ... 305
Departure, and voyage ... ... ... ... 308
Exploration and condition of the moon ... 310
Return to earth ... ... ... ... 312
CHAPTER XVII.
INTERPLANETARY PERSONAL INTERCOURSE.
Venus and the Venusians ... ... ... ... 314
History and features ... ... ... ... 316
Mars and the Marsians ... ... ... ... 317
Physical features ... ... ... ... ... 318
Marsian progress ... ... ... ... 319
Things social and political ... ... ... ... 321
Other members of our solar system ... ... ... 327
CHAPTER XVIII.
OUR FOREIGN TOUR, RESUMED FROM CHAPTER IV. : THE
OUTER CIRCUIT.
Arrival at Mars : reception
Business
Politics
A Marsian public dinner
An attack : a Marsian " leading article "
Arrival at lo, the First Jovian moon ...
Physical features
Manners and customs of the loans
Return home via Vesta and some other planetoids
330
331
332
333
334
338
339
342
346
Vestian people and business ... ... ... 348
XU CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIX.
OUR FOREIGN TOUR : THE INNER CIRCUIT.
PAGE
Preparations ... ... ... ... ... ... 350
An old friend turns up once more ... ... ... 351
Our further programme of travel ., . ... ... ... 353
Arrival at Venus ... ... ... ... ... 353
Arrival at Vulcan ... ... ... ... ... 355
Vulcanian features and peculiarities ... ... 357
The Vulcanian people ... ... ... ... 358
Arrival at the sun : danger of the voyage ... ... 359
CHAPTER XX.
THE SUN, AND THE SOLAR POPULATIONS. A YET " HIGHER
LIFE " THERE.
Upper and Lower Solardom ... ... ... ... 366
The Upper Solar people ... ... ... ... 368
Our personal experience of them ... ... ... 372
Their grand science attainments ... ... 376
CHAPTER XXI.
RELATES CHIEFLY TO A VERY CURIOUS DREAM OF MINE.
A cross with Brown — this time not the Cross-Electric . . . 381
My dream, and the disappointing awakening ... ... 383
CHAPTER XXII.
home's REALITIES AT LAST : ^ REAL, AT -ANY RATE, IF STILL
FURTHER DISAPPOINTING ... ... ... ... 390
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY AND QUITE INDISPENSABLE TO ALL
THE CHAPTERS THAT FOLLOW.
As I always say, at our present pace of i^rogress, what will
things come to a thousand years hence ? — Author, passim.
Having to describe, in these pages, a variety of persons
and circumstances, connected with myself or my be-
longings and surroundings, immediate or otherwise,
what so natural and fitting as that I should, first of
all, treat
Of Myself and my Wife ?
" Business first." That is my motto, and my wife
and I are entirely at one there. We agree in a good
deal more, I am happy to say. If we don't agree just
in everything, that is hardly to be expected even of
the best of wives. But, taken altogether, we are a
happy family, with a happy home. "Home, sweet
home," say I, " there's no place like home."
B
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Here, then, is simply the little bit of ground upon
which my wife and I do not exactly pull together.
Giving, as I do, all due precedence to business, yet,
business over and done with for its time, the mind,
as I hold, may betake itself to other, nay, call them
even higher things. Thus I have a decided turn for
statistics and certain departments of science, the
marvels of astronomy in particular. But my wife has
not, and makes no secret of her impatience with that
sort of thing. " My stars ! Nunnie," she will say —
my Christian name, by the way, is Nunsowe, after
my maternal relations — '' leave those other stars to
their own courses, and stick you to business ; you do
best at that." Yes, I flatter myself that I do pretty
fairly at business, and in that opinion we are also
agreed.
But neither wife nor business are to drive me out
of science, and I shall have a deal to say on that
high score ere we reach my last chapter. If one friend
does not appreciate, another does. Thus an influential
customer at our shop got me proposed and passed as
a member of the Statistical and Astronomical Societies.
My wife growled at first at the heavy subscription
money. But presently the letters I could put at the
end of my name began to take her fancy ; and when,
at one of the soirees, a live knight actually helped
her to coffee, while she occupied a sofa just vacated
by, and still warm from, a real countess, I heard no
more objections, even upon the money question.
We are both, as I trust and believe, good Church
people. She is somewhat High, at any rate as com-
pared with her husband. She regards him, and per-
haps, in a comparative sense, truly enough, as Low
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
and Broad, neither quality very savoury to her mind,
especially the first, which she always associates with
conventicle and nonconformity outbreak, radicalism,
and that general upsetting of the "lower orders" of
society, which, as she affirms, is now turning every-
thing in Church and State topsy-turvy. Even the late
mitigation in Court dress was not at all to her mind.
In these times she would surrender nothing to the
enemy.
Her temper was sadly ruffled lately in one of those
modern upsetting ways. Having helped to start a
servants' home in our district, she was elected on the
first committee, and was no little gratified by the dis-
tinction. But she was so strict with the inmates,
ever reminding them of their proper sphere, and the
due recognition of their " betters," that at last a
mutiny broke out all over the establishment, and was
only with difficulty suppressed. And how could it
have been suppressed at all, amongst such naturally
perverse people, my wife maintained, but for all her
disciplinary care in the first instance ! And yet at
the next election she was dropped out of the com-
mittee, her name being at the bottom of the poll.
After that, never speak to my wife of the merits of
free elective institutions !
My Most Particular Intimates, White and Brown.
White was an old retired coasting skipper, settled
down for his life's short remnant in our part of great
London, and with whom, in his business day, I had
done many a good stroke in freights, or frights, as
he always pronounced the word. He was a hearty
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
old cock, always ready for a yarn, and with a romantic
turn about travel by land and sea which I greatly
enjoyed. He and I used often to forecast the future
of travel, and wonder what travelling might come to,
say a thousand years hence. White would assert, in
his vehement way, and with a slam of our table that
would send the tobacco-pipe out of his mouth, that
he should not wonder if our descendants got outside
the world altogether, and voyaged far and away upon
the ether ocean.
Brown, again, was even a still older friend, a near
neighbour, and a brother trader in the same line as
myself, although happily sufficiently " round the
corner" to save mutual business interference. One
of his sons being in a stockbroker's office, we were
often amused by accounts of the bulling and bearing
that went on in the Stock Exchange, and both of us
were curious as to how fortunes were made there.
But, as fortunes were also lost, we never risked our
money. Our two families had been long intimate ;
and if there has been anything in my wife's late
mysteriously significant looks and hints, as regards
om^ eldest girl and another son of Brown's, the said
families are, some day soon, to be more intimate still.
Brown and I agreed in most things to a very hair's-
breadth. If not very much ever came out of Brown,
the amount that went into him was something mar-
vellous. He was the most exemplary listener within
all the range of my acquaintance, and I was bound to
reward him abundantly in that way. On our half-
holiday Saturday excursions, we used to seek out
some suburban solitude, by way of change from
busy and noisy London, and there I would pour into
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Brown's ready ear all my ideas about things in
general, and our future progress in particular. We
remarked how each successive year we had to go
further and further out upon the suburban lines to
secure this luxury of solitude. Some day London
will have overspread the whole country, and some
day all the rest of the world will be equally filled.
After that where was the increase to find even foot-
room ? How would it be a thousand years hence ?
We should be filling up the seas, and excavating
second and third surfaces beneath our feet.
Lastly, comes myself, in this trio of intimates with
White and Brown. My own name is Green, Nunsowe
Green, in the cheesemongering and provisioning line,
wholesale and retail, and in a business way always at
the reader's service.
Formation of the Great S.S.U.D.S., and
Discussions on Questions of the Day.
The estabhshment of " The Shoreditch and Spital-
fields Universal Discussion Society " formed quite an
era in our locality, and gained me fresh intimacies
which I must presently describe, as those, as well as
the others already dealt with, have much to do with
my present story. That event is now of some little
time ago, and our society has attained, in the interval,
no small local fame and usefulness amongst us. We
discuss freely all questions. But as my particular
bent is the future, I turn the tide in that direction on
every opportunity; and many a paper I have read,
on the question of what our progress, at the present
pace, is to do for us. What will things come to a
thousand years on ? May I be there to see.
6 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Having been myself a leading promoter of the
society, and in consequence elected to the first vice-
presidency, I was brought in contact with some few
others, who have since become also my intimates.
I must now introduce these friends to the reader, in
connection with the different questions of discussion
which they respectively took up and made specially
their own.
My Additional Intimates, Black, Yellowly,
AND Eeed.
Black was a superannuated laboratory assistant to
a chemical professor ; and as electricity and the spec-
troscope had suddenly flared out upon science just
prior to his retirement, and much aroused his
curiosity, he had become, in his old age, quite an
enthusiast in these questions, electricity in particular.
He had pretty well the whole argument to himself
amongst us, and was therefore very bold and free in
his views. When I had listened for ten minutes to
Black, I was ready to unload again for hours upon
Brown. Of course we made Black our j)i'esident, an
honour he has ever since maintained.
Yellowly was a skilled artisan, a sensible and
thoughtful fellow in his way, an ardent unionist, and
zealous in other ways for the influence and well-being
of his class. He was our great authority on the future
of the working classes, and of society and government
in general.
Eeed was a merchant of our neighbourhood, a
superior sort of man, of good education, and latterly
very successful in his business. But although all
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
this and more, he always stuck to his old friends, and
continued his leading part in the society's discussions.
If somewhat Broad, he was yet, like my wife and
self, a good Churchman. This double quality of his
— the bad Broad with the good Church, as my wife
put it — might have quite neutralized her regards in
that direction, were it not for Eeed's good social
position, which made her always very proud of his
and his family's acquaintance. Besides, Eeed was a
zealous and very successful Sunday-school teacher,
and in such high repute in the parish for his method
of teaching, that it deserves here a passing notice.
His method was this, that in reading Scripture
with his class, he always did it dramatically ; that is
to say, as though the various parties in the narrative
were actually addressing us. The reading in any
case was always as though spoken, instead of the
monotonous drone of ordinary reading. The boys
and girls were each in turn assigned their part, and
they were exhorted respectively to perfect themselves
so as to deliver their parts naturally and fluently and
without the book. The consequence was an intense
emulation in all the class, and a fresh interest in the
Bible narratives under this natural treatment. Our
friend's Sunday evening Scripture readings became
quite famous in the district ; and his juvenile troupe
of actors and actresses, as he purposely called them,
would give off the story of Joseph and his brethren,
of Euth, of Esther, and many others, with an effect
that sent a thrill through the large audience that at
times witnessed the performance.
I have said that Eeed purposely called the young
pupils his acting troupe. He was wont to deplore the
8 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
neglect amongst us of the lifelike dramatic method,
alike in instruction, recreation, and mere amusement,
and the disrepute and injurious and absurd prejudice
attaching to everything theatrical. No doubt there
had been some good cause in the low quality of most
of the past and cmTent theatrical entertainment, and
the consequent secondary position of the acting world
in general. He advocated even the direct intervention
of the State to lift the drama effectually out of the
mire into which it had so long fallen, so as to make
the profession perfectly respectable, and thus restore
to society one of its very best and most powerful
resources.
There was lately another incident, characteristic of
Eeed, at the marriage of one of his daughters. He
was for everybody being fully and usefully occuj)ied in
the world, and would speak poetically of The Crown
of Labour, as that which was to excel and outlive all
other earthly crowns. My wife, who had been much
gratified by the invitation she received on this happy
occasion, had a mind to specially please Eeed and the
young bride, by saying, in their hearing, something,
as she thought, extremely complimentary. Watching,
therefore, her opportunity, she dropped the remark
that the young lady, with all her expectations, might
fanly have aspired even to marry a title. The fair
bride was, in fact, to marry only an intelligent young
merchant, who had still his way to fight in the world,
and who sought a wife to fight it along with him. But
judge of the amazement of my better half when Eeed
replied that he both approved and preferred the choice
the girl had made for herself. There were three
classes, he went on to say, whom he would rather his
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
daughters avoided, in their laudable efforts to mate
themselves suitably. These were — blood relations,
soldiers, and noblemen. Not, certainly, that these
were worse than other people. But the first involved
deterioration of breed, while the others were exposed,
in perhaps most instances, to a comparatively un-
employed or idling life — a condition which was not
favourable either to married happiness or to life's
highest or best enjoyment.
Black, and Science Questions : Electricity and
THE Cross-Electric.
Electricity was, as I have said. Black's great hobby.
He had a notable theory on the subject, which was
entirely his own, as he constantly and proudly assured
us ; and this was to the effect, that by crossing the
electric current, in ways hereafter to be discovered,
we should enormously increase the power and quality
of the work done by the electric agency. We might
some day be able to cross and re-cross and cross yet
again, with ever-increasing powers, until our dynamics
could send us on the wings of light itself over space,
and our chemistry could synthesise, as he learnedly
worded it, all the organic as well as the inorganic
world, and turn out for us, from the laboratory, a
savoury beef-steak as readily as an acid or an alkali.
Yellowly on Social and Political Questions.
Our social condition, said Yellowly, was in a course
of quiet but really rapid change, and in a direction
mevitably democratic. He explained, in accordance,
10 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
that word of disturbing associations, ''Progress."
What was the real meaning of the term ? It meant
substantially the suiting and smoothing of the way
to the many who were ill-off, in their everlasting
struggle to rise some little towards the condition of
the few who were well off. If the hundred of the one
class were wearied and worried by its incessant dust
and noise, the hundred thousand of the other were
refreshed and helped onwards to an improved condition.
On Democracy and Progress.
Democracy and Progress, then, meant the great
social and economic change towards a less unequal
condition. Instinctively the ill-off masses called out
to expedite the progress, while the comparative few,
who were already well-off, as instinctively shirked or
deferred the ordeal. In this grudging spirit our
upper and well-off classes were liable to lose the
lead which they might otherwise retain. All our
hereditary preferences are for gentlemen in position,
manners, and education to lead us socially and
politically, if they will only show the due courage,
and not be scared by the shadows of inevitable things.
If our leading classes would still lead, they must
not grudge the disturbance of progress. But if these
will not head the inevitable progress, others must
push them aside and take their j)lace. It has been
sagely said, " Educate the masses first, and en-
franchise them afterwards." But in practice it has
been found that the only way to secure the progress
was to enfranchise first. Thus an unprecedented
race has set in since the great franchise extension of
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 11
1832. The further extension of 1867 brought us our
General Education Act of 1870, and its succeeding
improvements ; and the impending still further fran-
chise extension may be expected to give a marked
further impetus to society's advance.
On Trade Unions.
Yellowly was an ardent unionist, but he was quite
alive to certain vices and defects in unionist views.
He was, for instance, utterly opposed to the whole
coercion system, which doubtless both prejudiced and
limited union life. He thought that unions might be
so regulated, that membership would be a privilege,
pecuniary and otherwise, of sufficient value to prove
self-attractive, and, at the same time, to give the
effective whiphand over members in regard to union
discipline or personal conduct. One of his great aims
was the institution of a permanent great National
Representative Union, composed of selected delegates
from all the other unions — a sort of Upper House or
Senate in union life. Such a body, serving as a final
Court of Appeal, might be expected to reject or annul
such narrow, selfish, and erroneous views and rules
as still lingered in the separate unions. He was
encouraged in this idea by the decided progress to-
wards better and more correct views within the
unions, even during the last few years.
Yellowly hoped, in short, to see the last prejudices
against such inevitable results as the piece-work
system die finally away, and along with it that un-
reasonable and unreasoning fancy about giving to all
hands, good, bad, and indifferent, the same rate of
12 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
wages. More than anything else did he deprecate
the narrow and unjust monopoly involved in the
apprentice limitation principle, and in other respects
also the ungenerous and unbrotherly walls of mutual
exclusion which the different trades too jealously built
up against each other. As to picketing, rattening,
and such like, they were with Yellowly beneath con-
tempt, and hardly to be even spoken of with common
patience. At a Brickmakers' Union one evening,
when one of the members was recounting his success
in so disabling the hands of certain non-unionists, by
putting needles into the clay, that their families were
likely to starve for some weeks to come, Yellowly, as
he told us, could with difficulty resist smashing the
teeth of the vulgar ruffian, as he leered complacently
over his ghastly and traitorous story.
On Future Amelioration of Labour Conditions.
Yellowly was full of other schemes for the advance
of his class, and that of society generally. He had
large hopes from the effects of the universal education
now being enforced ; and again he had further hopes
in other directions from all kinds of co-operation,
by which, in brief, the present scant comfort of work-
ing-class life might be doubled, and at one-half the
present expense of working-class living. He fully
expected that the unions, under the better regulations
of the future, would promote more of a sentiment
of honour in regard to conduct and character, and
particularly as to the prevalent evil of intem23erance.
On this subject, he would fain that his class, as the
party chiefly affected, took a more leading charge of
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 13
the great j)ublic-house question. His own view was
that the public-house proper should not open till the
workman's dinnertime. This decision was upon a
balance of considerations, in which the temptations
and evils that were avoided far outweighed any or
all others. He knew the power of the temptation,
from having himself formerly given way to it. What
rescued him was a friend's advice, always first to
quench actual thirst with water. By adopting that
practice he recovered completely his self-control, and
thus gave new motives and a new joy to his whole
life. He would therefore have water at hand every-
where— a tap of the pure element to confront every
tap of strong drink, and on such equal terms, to fight
sobriety's great battle. Yellowly, however, sympa-
thized far too heartily with his fellows, in their rough
and hard life, to set up any mere moralizing on
this latter subject. He had more material aims, as
he would fain save their hard-earned money, thus so
profusely dissipated, for better uses, and for building
up the power, credit, and influence of all his class.
He exhorted all his class to honour and respect
woman, even if for no higher aim than their credit
and influence with society generally. He was a
strong advocate of woman's rights. The woman
should be equally free with the man to help herself,
and help on the world, in all ways suitable to her.
The world would advance at a quicker pace by help
of her head and hand. He wanted to see the estab-
lishment of women's as well as men's clubs ; and he
once bearded the Lord Mayor himself, in order to
get his countenance for clubs of domestic servants,
his lordshi^D, however, asserting that unless the day
14 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE/
could be prolonged to twenty-five hours he had not a
spare moment for further duty. Society would gain
in political steadiness, he would say, by extending
the franchise to woman. Society would certainly
gain moral strength by woman tending her own sex
in those delicate medical emergencies, where the in-
trusion of the other sex is never without sacrifice,
and has hitherto been tolerated only as a supposed
inevitable necessity.
On Social Advance, and some Present Eemediable
Defects.
Yellowly had equally pronounced views on other
social questions. He was a strong advocate for every
one getting married. If each young man, he would
say, were early engaged to each young woman, with
purpose of marriage as soon as the respective con-
ditions allowed, society would be, socially and morally,
at its very best. Any apprehended difficulties about
large families and over population weighed with him
as nothing in the scales against the improved morality,
and the consequent economy and general vigour of
life.
The present aspect of society was in terrible con-
trast with such a picture. But much of this evil
condition was even now somewhat remediable. For
instance, he blamed our authorities for their laxity as
to the wide prevalence of all kinds of begging, with
tramping, gipsying, and vagabondage in general, by
which such a huge mass of people were allowed to
lapse into idle, useless, and at last, in many cases,
criminal life. He considered it a most serious wrong
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 15
to the poorer classes that they could slip so easily
into mendicancy or other useless ways of life, and
thus become a nuisance instead of a help to society.
This particular evil was now so great and universal,
that high government intervention was needed for its
thorough cure.
We needed, in fact, quite a new departure, both
in this and in criminal jurisdiction. The hardened
and hopeless professional criminal, when taken red-
handed, should be permanently locked up, as long
as he continued such, and for his own good as well
as for the due protection of society. Others, of whom
there was more or less hope, should be treated with
comparative leniency. We should aim, as far as
humanity and decency will permit, to prevent the
criminal and worthless from leaving families behind,
and thus maintaining for society an everlasting battle
with professional and hereditary crime.
On Some Great Lines of Attainable Progress.
Yet another subject, and then I have done, for the
present, with Yellowly. Discoursing on his great
topic. Progress, he would remark that the most neces-
sary and advantageous class of works were those
which would surely reimburse all their cost by the
lapse of mere value-raising time. This was the now
well-known *' unearned increment of value " in the
country's real estate ; and all experience had now
proved it so reliable a feature, that he was more than
astonished that no one of our successive Governments
should as yet have, to any noticeable extent, applied
any of its boundless capabilities to the public good.
16 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
He instanced the crying case of the thorough resani-
tation of London, which had hitherto been attempted,
with such utter inefficiency, by private enterprise,
and latterly, but hardly to much better purpose, by
the Board of Works. During any thirty years of
this century, the comj^lete sanitary reconstruction
might have been accomplished, and the cost entirely
covered by the rise of value in the interval.
Yellowly's view, in this important direction, was,
that the State should undertake the larger works of
such progress, and that this would be done too
without involving the country in any public debt or
direct liability. He was opposed to national debts,
as serious hindrances to progress, and gave us at
times his ideas about reducing the interest of our
present debt and finally extinguishing the principal.
His plan for financing the great works in question
was by " special trusts," such as that lately proposed
in the abortive London Water Works scheme.
Then again, the "Parliamentary block," which
rendered any great general progress, such as he con-
templated, perfectly hopeless, even under the new
prospect of the cloture, as well as anything else in the
old ordinary way, he proposed to remove bodily, by sub-
stituting for viva voce debate a special parliamentary
IDublication of written views. In this way he thought
that opinions and views would be expressed more
freely and generally, as well as more calmly and care-
fully than before, while measure after measure could
be quietly, but with all due expedition, told off as the
public needs required. As Yellowly was still in the
prime of life, and already something of a leading
man in his union, and amongst his class, I hardly
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 17
doubted that, if he lived long enough, he might yet
leave his mark, in his own way, amongst his fellows,
and upon his time.
Eeed, and Eeligious Questions.
Eeed, as I have said, took the lead in religious dis-
cussion. Churchman as he was, he was opposed to all
privilege, and hoped there would some day be realized
a great inclusive national Church, based directly and
wholly on Scrij^ture, and free alike from any political
pecuniary or ecclesiastical privilege or endowment,
which other religious bodies could not equally attain.
Eeligious interests represented, at best, only sections
of the people. The State alone was representative of
the whole people, and therefore the State was and
ought to be supreme. In those various senses he
approved an '' Established " Church, and its ultimate
appeal to the impartial and consistent dealing of the
high national courts. The practice of dissenting
bodies of, so to say, contracting themselves out of
the ordinary law was, in Eeed's view, greatly to be
deprecated, as being a disadvantage to all parties,
productive of tyrannical and unsteady ways, and
promotive of religious dissension generally.
Eeasonableness and Common Sense in Eeligion.
Such was Eeed's motto. No religion, he would say,
could afford to dispense with either. He regarded
extremes in religious doctrine, sentiment, and ritual
as mainly answerable for the prevailing scepticism in
this age of education, with its inevitable attendants,
free thought and criticism, because of their tendency
c
18 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
to impart a moral and scientific improbability to
religion. The Roman Church he regarded as the
great transgressor in that way, as it had succeeded at
last, by accumulated superstitious traditions, in
making Eeligion incredible to a vast multitude of
educated and thoughtful minds. Even still more
hurtful was the ridicule to religion (Rome, however,
not being the only offender in that way) by retaining
an obsolete lackadaisical phraseology, worthy of the
impenetrable serenity of the Dark Ages' mind, as
though thus to force the way by defying the ready
sense of humour, as well as the ordmary common
sense, of modern society. The religion which had
satisfied Newton might satisfy ordinary mortals. But
this great question in particular could least dispense
with judicious presentation. If we would judge
surely of the reasonableness of our own religious
ways and views, we should transfer them to some
other and opposing creed, and see how they looked in
that changed light. Our religion — the Protestant
section at least — was professedly based exclusively on
Scripture ; and the open and simple doctrinal state-
ments of Scripture were not wisely recast into hard
creeds and confessions, which had ever divided and
kept asunder the Christian people. Reed would
abolish all creeds, even back to the so-called Apostle's,
with its Godhead falling as much short of that of
Scripture statement, as that of the so-called Athanasian
passed speculatively ahead of it. The terms Trinity
and Trinitarian, which now resounded so incessantly
through all our faith, were not Scriptural, and should
therefore be disused.
A THOUSAND YEABS HENCE. 19
ElGHTEOUSNESS AND USEFULNESS OF LiFE.
The end in religion, as in all else for man in this
world, Eeed asserted, was righteousness and usefulness
of life. The simple doctrinal language of Christ con-
stantly alternated in this practical direction. Amongst
the advantages, indispensable indeed to modern society,
of a great staff or order of trained clergy, was this
one disadvantage, that they were ever apt, by the
instincts of their position, to make doctrine supreme,
and thus turn the means into the end. And thus we
had a permanent heritage of antagonistic religious
sects, with the discouraging and almost hopeless
feature that each was far more concerned for its
hereditary differences, than for the substantial truth
of religion.
Extreme Views : Eternal Hell.
Although reasonableness and common sense were
already decidedly on the advance in religious views,
Eeed regarded certain extremes of popular orthodoxy
as still answerable for much discredit and hindrance
to religion. Take, for instance, the future of a literal
eternal torment. Was our religion really weighted with
so extreme a moral improbability ? If we had not
been used to such a doctrine in our own religion,
what would we have thought of any other religion
that possessed it ? The most formidable opponent to
this dogma, to begin with, is the Bible itself, in the
equity, reasonableness, and mercy of its general
spirit and tenour. The question here is, how far
the exact literal is always to be assumed in the
20 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Bible, highly Oriental and figurative as it is through-
out, and addressed directly to the Oriental mind.
The most effective argument is perhaps to show that
we have not hesitated repeatedly to set aside the
literal in other directions. Thus nearly all Christen-
dom has resisted the Calvinistic view, in spite of the
strong passages in the Epistle to the Komans ; while
the Eeal Presence doctrine is, on the ground of patent
fact and common sense, summarily dismissed by all
sound Protestants, notwithstanding the strongly literal
terms in St. John's Gospel. And, again, while but
two centuries ago witchcraft and an eternal hell were
equally orthodox teaching, humanity and common
sense have happily already quite rid us of the former.
The laity first dropped it, and finally and grudgingly
the clergy ; and now, when for like reasons the laity
have begun to throw off the latter belief, we must
hope that the tenacity of the clergy will prove, as
before, but a temporary hindrance.
But let us, continued Eeed, directly confront the
two great pillars of the dogma in question, namely,
the stories of the Sheep and the Goats, and of the Eich
Man and Lazarus. In the former we have Heaven
and Plell respectively awarded for the performance or
neglect of ordinary charities. Well, we have made
no scruple whatever to relegate all this charity doc-
trine to the realm of figure, but we still retain all the
literal Hell fire. One might surely say here, with
the noble poet, in a slight modification of his
words : —
" Of two such lessons, why reject
The nobler and the likelier one."
Then, again, as to the second story, we have the
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 21
rich man in want and misery Hereafter, simply
because he enjoyed his abundance in this life ; while
the poor and miserable in this life was rich and
happy in the next. " Son, thou, in thy lifetime,
receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil
things ; but now he is comforted, and thou art
tormented." Here then, if we are bound to the literal,
is quite a new religion, by which the conditions in
this life and the next are to be simply and exactly
reversed. Such a religion might be called the Nemesis
of the Grave, and it might possibly exist, as our
President Black has suggested, in coloured sun
systems or other eccentric parts of the universe. We
have dismissed, even without a hearing, all this
Nemesis part of the case, but once more we have
picked out, and clung to, the everlasting fire.
The Sunday Question — Sabbath v. Lord's Day.
Reed strongly opposed the Sabbatarian view, re-
garding it even as a serious stumbling-block in the
Christian pathway to the great body of the Christian
people. The view that good, honest, necessary labour
could be sinful at any time or on any day of the week,
placed us, at once, at variance with common sense.
The Judaic idea was special, inferior, and, as regarded
Christians, past and done with. The Christian ideal
had superseded the old Israelitish division into secular
and sacred days, because, whether in the shop, the
field, or the Church, Saturday or Sunday, we were
alike in the service of God. Nor should we lower this
high standard because there are still many minds
which do not, or cannot, rise to it. The portentous.
22 A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE.
all but total, silence of the New Testament and the
early Church upon the Jewish Sabbath, together with
the prompt change of the day, seem enough to settle
this question for us Christians. But, in fact, this con-
tentious modern Sabbath question is really in the main
an outcome of the Puritanism of the last three or four
centuries. And here, once more, the instincts of an
order of clergy are a]pt to be against us ; for naturally
enough their tendency must be to regard the special
day of their own ministrations as the best of the
week. Inheriting that view, they must naturally be
loth to disinherit themselves.
Bat the Sabbath is part of the Decalogue ! Well,
but the Decalogue itself is special, early Israelitish,
and perfected only by the higher and wider law,
recognized by Christ, of the love of God and the love
of our neighbour. Its special character is shown by
"the third and fourth generation" doctrine of the
second commandment, which later Scripture of wider
application has superseded ; by the coercive fourth
commandment itself ; by the special allusions of the
fifth ; and, lastly, by the tenth, which, among covet-
able things, classes the wiie with the slaves and
chattels of her husband. In the same special category
is the free polygamy and concubinage of those earlier
Old Testament times ; and the highest authority has
similarly stamped the ''eye for an eye, and tooth for
a tooth " doctrine. All this special case is still a
high theological question, to which the best and
perhaps the only answer has been given by Christ
himself, on the occasion of yet one more characteristic
instance of it, when he replied to the inquiring Jews,
that "Moses, for your hardness of heart, suffered you
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 23
to put away your wives ; but from the beginning it
hath not been so."
But seeing that man, who is born to toil, needs a
periodical recreative rest, we have wisely retained
the ancient and suitable seventh day, while, for
Christian reasons, it is also specially honoured as the
Lord's Day. This, rather than the misleading term
Sabbath, is properly for us its name. And again,
whilst dissociating all idea of sin from useful and
necessary work on any day whatever (for if any one
fails, on occasion, adequately to provide for his house-
hold in the six days, what more appropriate or
meritorious than to sacrifice also the seventh ?), yet
the needs of society at large require some common
understanding and purpose, and even the authoritative
intervention of the State, to promote and maintain
a universally recognized day of rest. It is the
recreative day of rest and leisure, and as such all the
well-disposed will gladly and naturally avail of its
opportunities for a still larger share of religious
exercise and thought. But as to this we should bear
in mind that neither coercive nor hypocritical religion
can be either edifying to man or acceptable to God.
Nor should we forget that "rest," in the sense of
mere inaction, is not the most acceptably recreative
agency to large sections of modern society. The
great want is a freely cheerful recreative day, in which,
with a large mutual charity and forbearance, every
one may be left to do himself all the good he can,
without disturbing his neighbour. " Let every one
be persuaded in his own mind."
24 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
" Answers to Prayer."
Nothing is more proper to man, or more enjoined
by Scripture, than prayer to God. But there prevailed
widely a very free and easy assumption of special and
direct ^'answers to prayer," which, from the devout
general or monarch on the battle-field, down to the
devout leaders in more ordinary scenes of all kinds,
were but too apt to involve the Divine Being in a
perpetual succession of contradictory and impossible
events and statistics. It is always good to pray, and
every one gets good by so doing. But it is never
safe, in modern experience, to assume special and
direct answers. Even the apparently happiest hits,
in this interpreting way, are apt to be the most
laughed at, by religious people themselves, where
there is variance in religious views.
The "Praising" of God.
The idea underlying "the worship of praise" is
wholly at variance with modern advanced thought
and moral perception. To praise any one, in order
to please him or receive his favour, is too gross to the
modern sense to be even thought of, and the higher
the person thus addressed, the greater perhaps would
be the affront. But by force of long unchallenged
habit we can literally rant and bellow the praises of
God without sense of the ludicrous grossness of the pro-
cedure. The words and example of Christ do not sustain
this low ideal. The hymns our modern Churches are
substituting for the old praising psalms, are a move-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 25
ment in the right direction. The praising as the
cursing psalms belong alike to the religious past.
Sensational Eeligion.
Although opposed to gross forms of religious excite-
ment, Eeed was ready to acknowledge that the masses
might not be reached by the decorous quietude of
religious ministration, suited to more refined and
educated life; and thus he freely recognized the
valuable co-operative aid of active and zealous non-
conformity with the efforts of his own Church in the
religious leavening of the people. But he was opposed
to that extravagance that might be called the scare
system, in popular preaching and conversion efforts.
No doubt some few natures were aroused — scared, so
to say — into better ways, but usually at the serious
cost of an unhealthy and alienating effect upon all
the rest. Suppose, for example, some great school
where the master's system was to threaten the children
indiscriminately all round, to the effect that if the
naturally vicious little " varmints," as he held them all
to be, did not do all he ordered them, and believe all
he told them, down they should drop into some place
of torment. No doubt some few specially unruly
spirits might be cowed into good conduct, but what,
on the other hand, would be the moral effect upon
the whole school ? Then, again, even if revivals
and conversions in the scare way had at times such
good practical results, we must remember that this
sensational feature does not belong to any one religion
in particular, but is the indiscriminate heritage even
of opposing creeds. There is, in short, always a
26 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
grotesque side of the case which is damaging to
religion in the pubHc feeling by its suggestive aspect
of moral and mental instability.
A Popular Eevival Preacher.
For discussional purposes Eeed took some of us one
evening lately to a popular revival meeting. The
preacher on the occasion, as he himself was fain to
boast, was as destitute of human " orders " as he was
of human learning. His orders, he said, were direct
from Heaven. He told us he had been converted
from a life of vice, and with complacent but un-
savoury effusion recounted his having broken well-
nigh every law, human and divine. But as, withal,
he had sought and had found pardon, so no one need
be discouraged on account of personal depravity.
Heaven, he said, was full of pardoned depravity.
The blessed angels rejoiced most over those who had
been the most depraved. But some might say, " Live
on as you like, only take care at the end to repent
and secure pardon and Heaven." Well, it might all
come right at the last moment, no doubt; but he
must warn all such that they pla3^ed a risky game,
for they might be suddenly cut off unprepared, and
thus inherit everlasting fire instead of eternal bliss.
He truly pitied all those people, so worthy in their
own eyes, who led what the world called good moral
lives ; because all their weary and protracted efforts
and restraints in that self-righteous way would not
bring them, by one jot or one tittle, nearer to Heaven.
He then passed to the final and terrible day of judg-
ment, when all these people, in their helpless rags of
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 27
self -righteousness, were to come u^d to receive their
eternal doom. Here then they are, all arrayed now
on the left hand of the great Judge, and plentifully
amongst them are scattered earthly judges, magis-
trates, long files of policemen — all of them possibly
quite respectable in this world's view. These had it
all their own way upon the earth, and a merciless
way too. But now the judges of this world are to be
themselves judged. On the right hand, again, is
arrayed another group, equal to the first, but, in the
world's view, of a very different quality — burglars,
wife-smashers, murderers, but who had sought and
obtained that mercy and pardon from Heaven, which
the inferior authorities of earth had denied them.
Those on the left are passed downwards into everlast-
ing fire ; while those on the right move upwards into
eternal bliss, singing as they go, out of lovely angels',
bosoms, their alleluiahs of hol}^ triumph and sanctified
revenge.
The Future of Good but Sceptical Men.
Another of Eeed's religious questions concerned the
hereafter of our many eminent but sceptical philo-
sophers. What was to befall this legion of able,
useful, and otherwise excellent men, after their busy
life here below was ended ? Not a few of them might
fairly dispute the high palm awarded to David Hume,
after his death, by his sorrowing friend, Adam Smith,
" as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly
wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of
human frailty will permit." Reed was guided in this
contentious question by the moral and equitable spirit
28 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
equally pervading Scripture with the dogmatic, and
demanding equal consideration. To all, therefore,
whose life and conduct had been worthy, the impartial
Judge would say, *' Well done, good and faithful
servant, enter into that higher and more enduring
life, for which thou, whilst on earth, hast so diligently
qualified." Besides, added Eeed, those worthy people
will have such a sheepish look when that unexpected
day comes upon them, that it will be impossible to
mistake them for goats.
This discussion proved all the more interesting to
us at the time, as occurring simultaneously with the
expression of a very different view on the same subject
from a right reverend prelate of our Church, who had
once more nailed the red flag to the mast, in declaring
that Plume and Voltaire would now be experiencing
that eternity and eternal fire, which, while in this
life, they had ventured to disbelieve.
Gray and Mormonism.
Another active and intelligent member of our society
was my foreman, Gray. For business purposes there
could be no better man. But Gray was a zealous
Mormon, having been converted by a mission of that
persuasion some years before. His wife, although
disliking the Mormonism for more reasons than one,
yet admitted that the conversion had given herself a
better husband, and her children a better father.
When my offended wife would have had me turn him
off forthwith, I explained that certainly that orthodox
course meant a reduced credit at the year's profit
and loss account, and consequently reduced possi-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 29
bilities of milliner's bills. So her opposition in that
direction ceased.
Gray would say that religion had its rotten-egg
stage. The early Christians had to encounter it, and
so now have the early Mormons. But if he had to be
prudent and guarded outside the society's walls, his
zeal did not spare us within. The future, he would
assert, belonged to Mormon truth, and he would like,
of all things, to witness the spread and trium^Dhs of
his Church five hundred or a thousand years hence.
Until his conversion he had been negligent in the
religious sense ; but now he was himself full of con-
verting zeal, and, with a solemn and adroit way he
had, he was not unsuccessful. For instance, standing
at his own door one evening, when a person passing
in the street inquired of him the way, he got him
inside, promising with serious manner to show him
the true way. There he succeeded in engaging his
visitor in earnest discussion and prayer ; and the man,
who frankly admitted that he had not previously
attended much to religion, was so struck by Gray's
words and manner, that he called repeatedly after-
wards for further insight, and ended by conversion to
Mor monism.
Gray had great faith in getting people to their
knees. He would say that half conversion's battle
was over at that stage. An odd incident once hap-
pened to him, in that converting way, on meeting
accidentally, in the railway train, an equally zealous
rival missionary of one of the smaller and more active
religious bodies, who was, like himself, a great scare
converter. The particular method of this latter party
was to run up to people passing on the highway, and
30 A THOUSx\ND YEARS HENCE.
demand of them, in all anxiety and alarm of expres-
sion, if they were yet saved. Both missionaries had
enjoyed converting successes that day, and each was
returning home more or less satisfied, when they
happened to meet in the same compartment of the
train. As the saying is, " When Greek meets Greek,
then comes the tug of war." Each, catching in the
other's eye the sinister glance of religious diversity or
unbelief, seized upon the other to bring him to his
knees. But neither party expecting the other's attack,
and misunderstanding its harmless meaning, there
were immediate and loud calls from both simul-
taneously for guard and police ; and it was only after
due explanation from either side that they were both
discharged from custody.
Gray had full belief in eternal punishment, and
would solemnly declare that everlasting fire awaited
all who rejected Mormon truth. If people wilfully
accepted the alternative, he would say, how was God
cruel to leave them to their own will and choice ?
The heart was at fault in unbelief rather than the
head. If any one pleaded the impossibility of believing
Mormonism, he would sharply ask if it was impossible
for him to fall upon his knees and pray for true
faith, which, if prayed for honestly and in earnest,
would certainly be given. And again he would urge
people to believe, if only on prudential grounds, for
even if religion, after all, proved to be a myth, they
lost nothing, whereas if true they lost everything.
Above all, he earnestly exhorted converts to abstain
from reading or listening to the profane attacks of
the outside Gentile world, however plausible, upon
Mormon truth.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 31
Violet, another active member of our society, was
one of Gray's hardest opponents. Violet in religion
was Unitarian, and in his phlegmatic way, which was
so irritating to Gray's sincerely hot zeal, he would
argue that God must be as greatly dishonoured by
believing too much as too little. The "peculiar
domestic institution" did not, of course, escape
Violet's sarcastic animadversion. But the already
well-practised Gray was not unprepared for the enemy
on this delicate point. He would remark, with an
off-hand but lofty reserve, that if he must condescend
to defend what God himself had, by direct intimation,
sanctioned and even enjoined upon the saints, he
would ask what was man that he should presume to
set up his mere human notions of morality against
God ? God was infinite, and infinite morality might
well be, and doubtless really was, something different
from the finite.
A Proselytizing Scrape.
All this ''measure for measure " was well enough
in its way ; but my over-zealous converting foreman
was as nearly as possible in a serious scrape lately,
which came about in this way. There were two
young Scotch girls, sisters, and servants next door
to us, whom Gray thus got slightly to know, and on
whose conversion he had set his heart. They had,
however, very much taken my wife's fancy by their
quiet and humble ways ; and accordingly she never
rested till she had got them out of their wrong
northern Presbyterianism — a religion in her eyes no
better than it should be — and had them both securely
32 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
confirmed at our parish church. As the great organ
was pealing all through the building when the girls
first entered it, a cold shiver ran through them,
because, as they said, it seemed like entering a play-
house on the Sabbath. My wife, however, succeeded
in laughing them out of this nonsense, as she called
it. But, alas, for those area stairs in our city houses,
so useful to pass food to the body, they facilitate also
poison to the soul. Two Catholic sisters, on a con-
version mission, found their way down. They were
gentleness and meekness personified. When they ex-
horted to pray preferentially to the Holy Virgin, who,
as Mother of God and Queen of Heaven, had more
influence for people's good or ill than any other
member of the Godhead ; when they expatiated further
on the all but super-mortal Infallible earthly Head of
their only true Church ; and finally upon everlasting
fire in reserve hereafter for all who refused to be
saved through the Catholic Church, the girls were at
last reconverted ; and as they had to attend mass by
stealth, for fear of losing their places, they became
all the more zealous about their new faith.
But now opens another and final scene in this little
drama. One of the girls is taken seriously ill. She
had caught severe cold some time before, in attending
a protracted midnight revival meeting, to bring in the
new year ; and now a galloping consumption had set
in, and the young life must so prematurely close.
Deathbeds were always Gray's grand opportunity.
He contrived to gain access to' the patient, and when
the excitement and alarm, into which he succeeded in
throwing her, threatened immediately fatal results,
he was only all the more pressing to secure the con-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 33
version during the last possible and precious moments.
A fit came on in consequence, from which there was
no subsequent rally ; but he could assure the surviving
sister that the last sj)arkle of the eye looked that of
true faith. The sister was thus also converted ; and
she afterwards emigrated to Utah, to be safely sealed
for Mormon paradise as thirteenth wife of a Mormon
elder.
Eeed was furious when he heard of this business,
and spoke freely of the benefit of diverting such mur-
derous zeal by twelve months of the treadmill. He
even called upon the coroner to consider about having
Gray arrested, with the view of having him tried for
manslaughter. The coroner stood aghast at the new
field of work thus opened out to himself, and asked
where, in the discrimination of such doings, he was
to stop ; for Eeed had clearly enough intimated that
he had no idea of limiting his action to Mor monism.
Minor Polemics — White and Brown.
White was Wesley an, while Brown was Calvinist.
Quiet old Brown held the stern and iron faith, while
that of love and gentleness had fallen to vehement
old White. Yet in religious matters Brown was any-
thing but quiet, and was ever seeking a fling at White,
whom he usually and easily discomfited by throwing
at him a ready succession of Scripture texts. A re-
mark of Eeed's one day, that the only effectual way to
settle an extreme sectary was to bring down upon him
another sectary still more extreme, was duly treasured
up, for defensive purposes, in White's mind. Accord-
ingly, the next time he argued with Brown, White had
D
84 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
provided the company of a neighbour and acquaint-
ance of his own, who was also Calvinistic, but in a
decidedly more advanced degree than Brown. Poor
Brown was soon effectually smashed, and White's future
peace secured. We nicknamed this terrible fellow the
Unmitigated Calvinist, while Brown was only the
Mitigated, or mere Eeason-Eeconciliation Calvinist.
Forecasting the Future — At our Pace of Progress
WHAT are Things to come to in the Future ?
In accordance with my own particular hobby, I
would, on every possible occasion in our society, turn
the discussion upon the forecasting of the future.
Our present progress was in geometric ratio, to use
a common phrase. Every ten or twenty years' ad-
vance exceeded that of any previous like interval, and
where shall we be after fifty or a hundred more such
intervals and such advances ? I presented my own
ideas on this subject to the Society, and I persuaded
some of our other leading members to present theirs
also, for successive discussion. Thus we had, in par-
ticular, a scientific forecast from Black, as to what
might be the world's attainments and condition,
through the advances of science over another thousand
years. This was followed by Yellowly, on the social
and political changes impending upon the inevitable
progress of our country and of the world in general.
And lastly came Eeed's forecast of the religious
future, in which the Church of reasonableness and
good common sense would have made a more effective
develoi^ment. Let me, then, in this looking-forward
direction, begin with —
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 85
My own General Forecast.
My great subject was the crowd of the future of the
world's population. Nationalities would be merged
in those days. But how were they all to be fed, how
even to find foot-room ? Supposing the food question
solved in the direction indicated by Black, a very
moderate rate of increase, such as that of the doubling
of the numbers every third of a century, would give,
in a few centuries hence, a thousand times the present
population, and in a few fm-ther centuries a thousand
times that again, and so on. Then, again, there was
the sanitary question. What would be the health-
condition with all this crowd ? Here I rather prided
myself on a project of the future, which was entirely
my own, and which was suggested to my mind in the
way I shall now describe.
Returning from business one afternoon, I came
upon some little street Arabs, who were still sporting
in the gutter with all the freedom of which our great
Education Act has since happily deprived them. One
of these children had a form and beauty so strikingly
perfect, shining through all his rags and dirt, that
I stood a while to muse over such striking social
contrarieties ; and while so engaged I developed a
project which I was fain to put conspicuously into
my forecast of our future. Suppose, as I argued, we
were to gather together all such perfect forms of
health and beauty, in order to bring up these nature-
favoured persons in an educational and training way
comparable with the other superiorities already
theirs. Obviously we might have here the beginnings
of a superior race, which might not only come to the
36 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
front, but eventually even resanitate and reconstitute
the whole society. I came at last to be quite full of
this idea, and even to express a willingness, at some
trifle of pecuniary cost, to give a hand to see it
practically commenced, on however small a scale at
the first. But I got no help in this practical direc-
tion. My wife called it the sheer nonsense of these
upsetting times. Even my fail-me-never old Brown,
who enjoyed the theory of the thing, declared that,
in going further, he could not see business in any
part of it. And so, on this subject, at any rate, I was
always left in a minority of one.
But to return to world-population estimates, even
if we supposed only the Anglo or Kelto-German races
to survive in the future squeeze, and " survival of the
fittest," the multiplication, ere a thousand years,
would not leave even foot-room on the world's surface.
What a curious spectacle must be our world with all
this population, and their striving and ingenuity to
secure mutual and comfortable accommodation ! As
I often say, might I but be there to see.
Black's Scientific Forecast.
Black dealt largely and sagely with the new phrase
Energy. All forces were convertible into energy.
We were to have dealers and traders in energy, and
our money itself would some day be energy. Black's
predominating idea was that electricity, which was
one of the forms of energy, was at the bottom of
everything. And then there was his peculiar notion
about crossing and recrossing the electric current,
by means of which, in successive grand eras of
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 37
future discovery, we should attain to knowledge and
power as yet undreamt of. This cross-electric
power would be efiQcacious alike to pour out un-
limited food from our chemical laboratories, and
to propel us at incalculable speed over the outside
universe. The science of the future was to carry us
far outside our pigmy world, on the wings of cross-
electrified energy, and at or beyond the lightning's pace.
And, again, Black's idea was that life and mind reign
all over the universe, at least in all those worlds which
possess an aerial or liquid medium, or both, in
which life might develop, after the various primitive
forces, originally convulsive, to use his learned
phrase, had subsided into equilibrium. What may
seem to our constitutions impossible extremes of heat
or cold, may not prevent this universal life, but only
perhaps vary the substances taken up into the vital
structure, or affect the pace or the particular direction
of physical or mental development. Thus, it was
not impossible that the sun itself might be peopled.
There might possibly be a solid and settled, albeit, to
our feeling, a somewhat hot world of life and mind
beneath, perhaps far beneath, the still mysterious
photosphere. We might indulge this view, at any
rate, as long as this striking photospheric feature
remained unexplained. Indeed, Black would add, the
photosphere itself might be just this cross-electricity
ever staring us every day in the face.
Then, again. Black would throw out some curious
speculations upon coloured suns and coloured-light
systems. The stars, of course, were all suns, with
their respective planets and moons whirling round
them, and their organized life throughout, ascending
38 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
gradually in the scale, according to more or less
favouring conditions, and culminating in man. The
coloured suns had their planetary and lunar system
like the white suns ; and, doubtless, the populations
of coloured light exhibited, mentally as well as
physically, some of those striking effects which science
has lately begun to notice as the result of colour.
Indeed, Black made no secret of looking upon colour,
in this grand department of its application, as tanta-
mount to the aberration or eccentricity, or, to put it
more plainly, to the insanity of the heavens.
Yellowly's Social and Political Forecast.
Yellowly gave us a forecast of the future of our
social and political condition, in view of the race of
change and progress upon which society had now
entered. The future of his own class's large section
of society had, of course, especial interest for him.
The effects of universal education, and of the rapid
and general application of machinery to supersede
more and more the deadening and exhausting toil of
working-class life, must alike elevate this class and
equalize the condition of the whole body of society.
The day might come, and not perhaps be so very far
off, when every man, woman, and child would come
up to the social front well-dressed, well-mannered,
well-educated, and well-off.
The time must come, too, when the follies and
miseries of war must cease amongst nations. But it
was as yet to be sadly confessed that our advancing
civilization had not hitherto backed this hope, but
had rather converted hope into despair. Yellowly's
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 39
idea of the solution of this problem took the direction
of imparting a military drill to all the youth of the
country, so as to enable the whole people afterwards,
at shortest notice, to turn out, to all the extent need-
ful, in defence of the fatherland, thus rendering
practically impossible the mutual invasion of nations.
The general political forecast was also freely treated
by Yellowly. There were great political changes
ahead for us, in substance, at least, if not in form.
We had our own peculiar political ways, and would
probably keep to them to the last, unless unforeseen
incidents gave the political machine any revolutionary
upset. We were already in a course of actual change,
and at no dilatory pace, although the political surface,
in point of external form, remained undisturbed. Thus
our government had passed already into what was
called a " constitutional " monarchy, in which the
hereditary monarchy survived, but at the expense of
the surrender of any independent views or will of the
personal monarch. It was not difficult to foresee
what must be the end of that in democratic progress.
" The Crown " would gradually pale out of sight as
regarded practical government. Queens, by force of
the natural courtesies of sex, and of that more ex-
emplary life which circumstances help to give to
the other sex, would protract this result more success-
fully than kings; and, again, queens who were also
super-excellent women would protract it still further.
The hereditary element must everywhere die out
amongst us as an actual political power. Neverthe-
less if, as said above, our normal development remain
undisturbed by revolutionary incidents, we shall not
lapse into a republic, which is a term politically
40 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
foreign to us. We shall continue to possess a Parlia-
ment, headed, in the country's actual government,
by a premier who is dependent on a parliamentary
majority. We shall be a commonwealth, as, indeed,
we have already been, and still are — the great Com-
monwealth of England.
Keed's Eeligious Forecast.
As Yellowly's chief sympathies lay in forecasting
the future of his class, so Keed's lay in that of his
Church. He foresaw the progress of religion generally
in reaonableness and good common sense, and he was
persuaded that his national Church would, as became
her, head the movement far more effectively than she
had yet been able to do. But in order to ascend to
all this honoured position, she must throw off various
worldly incumbrances, and betake herself much more
to the simiDlicity and the open and inclusive doctrinal
teaching of Scripture. The bishops must surrender
the stumblingblock of their political power. He
would not abandon the convenience and defensive
strength of a learned, exemplary, and honoured episco-
pate ; but the Church must drop out Apostolico-Epis-
copal Succession, that cherished myth of the past,
which history has at length dissij)ated. In these
ways might a great national Church be reconstituted,
attracting into its wide and generous fold the great
body of the people, and reducing outside dissenting
extremes to a comparatively small surrounding,
whose antagonisms, mutual and general, might well
form the best set-off to the moderation and good
sense of the main body.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 41
Gray's Mormon Forecast.
Lastly, our friend and associate, Gray, of course,
suggested a very different forecast — one in which, as
he asserted. Mormon truth would take its rightful
possession of the earth ; and old Brown, too, would
still put in a word for the future resurrection of
now expiring Calvinism.
Brown's Eemarkable Dream.
How often it happens that a whole busy lifetime
seems to pass before the mind during some short
interval in a dream ! Brown has been full of this
idea of late, and he recounts to me how, during a
short after-dinner snooze, his mind had pieced to-
gether, in most magnificent order, all the marvels of
progress I had so often poured into it. He dreamt
the other day that he had survived into a thousand
years hence, and was revelling in all the accumulated
progress of that far-off time. Here truly was for me
a full harvest for all my long and patient seed-sowing
in the field of old Brown's knowledge-box. At any
rate, the affair made a strong impression upon Brown,
his great regret being, as he repeatedly said, that he
had not my ready pen to have jotted down at once
everything just as it a^Dpeared while the vision was
still fresh in his mind. " If I had but your knack of
writing, Green," he would say, *' I would have had
out a volume on the subject, and might possibly have
turned a good penny out of it too." And many a
joke we all had over the old fellow's remarkable
dream.
42 A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE.
A Memorable Holiday Trip.
We always give ourselves a holiday trip on Easter
Mondays, and the very last occasion was, in a com-
parative way, memorable, for we had company with
us, and we went somewhat further afield than usual.
In short, we went as far as Brighton, and our com-
pany comprised the oldest son of our old friend
Brown. Our oldest girl looked particularly happy
under these circumstances. That affair of hers is as
good as settled now, and, indeed, from the very first
I regarded it favourably ; for the youth seemed a
prudent, sensible fellow — a true chip, in fact, of the
old Brown block, and likely to push his way fairly in
the world. But my wife, whose maternal matri-
monial eyes have been rather upwards ever since our
business began to graduate into the wholesale, had
not been quite so satisfied, and at first rather looked
down on the Brown connection, cheesemongering and
provisioning, just like our own as it was, and
wholesale, too, as well as retail. But then that was
entirely between her and myself. She afterwards got
accustomed to the young fellow, then pronounced the
event inevitable, and ended by a strong liking for her
prospective son-in-law.
So we were all at one last Easter, and we did enjoy
ourselves on that occasion. I had promised my
young friend, who was about to set up in the hard-
ware line, not only to procure him useful introduc-
tions, but also to accompany him personally next
morning in his preliminary business tour to our
central iron districts. The fact is, and between our-
selves, good reader, I was ever on the alert for the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 43
chance of a jaunt anywhere, as my wife would allege
of both old White and myself, notwithstanding all the
usual sobering of years to both of us. My foreman,
Gray, was quite trustworthy in one's absence, and
I felt that a little bit of travel at times did one good.
I hardly know whether it was the fresh sea air
during our protracted saunter over the Brighton beach,
or that the excellent Allsopp had been even more than
ordinarily relished, but any way I confess to having
felt unusually comfortable so soon as I was once more
at home, and was bundled into my accustomed easy
chair by the bright fire. I had already spread before
me my favourite studies for holiday snatches, and
other leisure moments, so as never to be losing
precious time. Before me lay the last Statistical
Society issue, with the population increase for the
last decade, together with some ingenious calculations
as to that for centuries further ahead. There were
also some last weekly numbers of Nature, with,
amongst others, some articles on sunspots and red
flames, which I had proposed to dip into till tea time.
There was quite a buzz of tea preparation through the
room, with the pleasant clatter of cups and saucers.
The last sounds that fell distinctly on my ears were
the fuf&ngs of the tea-urn, as our Biddy-of-all-work
put it upon the table behind me. After that, all my
thoughts were galloping off to suns and systems far
outside of our poor little earth, of which, none the
less, we are ever apt to think so much, although it is
truly of the very essence of littleness in the grand
comparison.
44 A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE.
CHAPTEE II.
IT IS INDEED NO OTHER THAN A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE
A BUSINESS EXPEDITION HOME AND FOREIGN
TRADING, AND THE HOME TOUR THE CHIEF HARD-
WARE AND ENERGY DISTRICTS OF OUR DAY.
At oiir present pace of progress, what will things have come
to in a thousand years? May I be there to see. — Author,
chap. i.
Our young friend, after returning home with us from
the holiday excursion, was to remain all night, so
that we might both start by early morn upon our
proposed business tour. But I had been much
exercised in mind, ever since our tour had been
mooted, about a much more extended scheme of
travel ; and without being over-communicative on the
subject to my wife, I had quietly made, with my trusty
foreman Gray, such business arrangements as might
allow of a more protracted absence, in case my new
plans took effect. The opportunity, indeed, seemed a
good one for a bit of travelling adventure, to say
nothing of a business turn or two that might also fall
in one's way. Travel, in these advanced days, when
one could launch off from the confinement of one's
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 45
own little world, was something to enlarge the mind,
as well as merely to fill the pocket.
Next morning, therefore, while we bent over our
small chemical Liebigs, to make ready our simple
laboratorial breakfasts before starting, I opened to my
companion the project of my more extended travel.
My proposal now was to superadd the foreign to the
home business tour, and I was delighted with the
cordial response given by young Brown, who was
evidently, all over, as I have said, a true chip of the
old block, and ever ready to jump by preference in
the direction of the heaviest profit. Accordingly I
sketched out, in the first place, a home business
round, to be followed by another round abroad. And,
again, as regarded this latter, while we were about
it, we would take both the outer and the inner
circle of foreign travel, and thus do a good round job
once for all.
What Travelling is in these Advanced Times.
Let me here, in passing, contrast travel a thousand
years ago, and travel now, in this year of grace to
which we have arrived, the year 2882. Formerly all
travelling was confined to our own little globe, and
excepting casual excursions of the most helpless kind
in balloons, we could not even lift ourselves off its
narrow surface into the surrounding air, let alone
getting away into outside space. But now, on the
contrary, the air is the ordinary medium of our daily
locomotion, as the earth's surface, both above and
below, has been long since so crowded with human
life, that the old modes either of surface or of under-
46 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
ground travel, by rail or otherwise, have been for
centuries of necessity abandoned. And again, as to
range of travel, we now launch off into the bound-
less Ether ocean, on visits to adjacent worlds, with
hardly more of time, trouble, or expense than were
formerly incurred in visiting adjacent countries within
our own little planet. What we now call the Home
Trade, is the trade within our own small world, while
the Foreign Trade is that with worlds outside.
The Crowd of our Modern Life*
Anon, with our few traps packed up, we are ready
to march, and we open the door of our tidy little
home, and emerge upon the street. Homes are very
small spaces nowadays, when there are such count-
less millions to be accommodated with them, and
thus most of space, other than house-room, gets the
general name of street, seeing that the old variety of
empty country areas and green fields has long since
disappeared. When Brown senior and I, of a half-
holiday Satm'day, sally forth, in our old accustomed
way, to seek the refreshing change of solitude and
quiet, instead of the eternal crowd and noise of these
endless streets, we have ever to mount farther and
farther into the outer realms of thinnest endurable
atmosphere, all the lower and denser air-strata being
crammed with locomotive humanity. The sj)ectacle
we look down upon from aloft, by-the-by, is not un-
enjoyable, for every one must prefer to see cold sj)ace
thus genially filled up with the warmth of human
life and movement. At the same time, however, as
I always say, although it is all pleasant and comfort-
i
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 47
able enough as far as we have as yet gone, and
nobody could ever dream of retreating to the smaller
things of the past, yet I do often wonder as to the
future, and how the additional crowds are to get on,
say in another thousand years.
Well, we have now sallied forth, and we watch our
opportunity, from our door-step, to merge into line
and pass on, tramp, tramp, with the rank and file of
the street. This morning we are rather before the
high business hours, when the press of passengers is
always greatest. There is an understanding that at
those times we are to march at a somewhat quicker
step, that being of course the only mode by which all
the multitude can get accommodated and passed
through, each to his different business or other desti-
nation. It is really wonderful how pleasantly and
comfortably we get on withal. But, as I said before,
how will things be in the futm-e at the present pace
of progress ? How will we all be getting on a
thousand years hence ?
A Scientific Experiment quite in Character.
On this subject of the life, warmth, and geniality
impressed u2Don us by such well and comfortably
filled space, our philosophers had a cm'ious experi-
ment the other day. Securing for their purpose,
through the authorities, one of the public market
spaces, which was kept quite empty for their use for
some brief minutes, they placed an old lady, blind-
folded, in the midst of this wide and unaccustomed
solitude, in order to mark the sudden effect of the
unexpected position. She, worthy, unsuspecting soul.
48 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
proud of being in any way useful to the cause, and
exemplifying a confidence in the honour of modern
science which is so worthy of these advanced times,
had for the occasion resigned herself unreservedly to
the experiment. Her bandage being now whipped
off by an electric switch, the instantaneous effect of
realizing the surrounding solitude, and the fact that
she was separated by quite fifty yards of empty space
from any human being, sent the poor old lady off into
a faint, from which she did not fully recover until
partaking of a dose of well- synthesized old cognac
from an adjacent laboratory.
But this sort of thing, as I must and will say, may
be all very well for science, but for business it is not
always so convenient. Both Brown and I, on that
morning, found ourselves blocked by this ongoing
upon om' way to business. Both of us were some
precious minutes late, and who knows what early
worms both of us missed on that occasion, and in
these competitive times too, when one's weather eye
can never be safely shut even for a moment ?
Cabs, Cab-stands, and Cab-Travel.
But to return to the thread of my story, my young
friend and I are now making for the nearest cab-
stand. We had decided on a cab, even at its higher
cost, rather than the huge regular train-omnibus, as
the greater speed of a direct course without stoiDpages
was an object to us, and especially to myself, in view
of our now enlarged scheme of travel. Cab-stands in
old time used to range in long line upon the surface.
But when available spaces there began to fail, some
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 49
few centuries ago, under the preferent wants and
claims of human beings, these useful vehicles were
sent up aloft, in perpendicular succession, above our
heads, in all sorts of shifty ways possible to their
conveniently slight structure, which was mainly of
thin extra-tough sheet diamond, until by the grand
discovery of the reduplication of the cross-electric,
as we shall see further on, the cross-electric current
could be made to lift up and suspend material bodies,
and thus enable us to have our present far greater
convenience of long perpendicular lines of cab-stands,
stretching unrestrictedly upwards towards old cloud-
land. Thus a whole cab-stand of thousands is upheld
at a comparatively small cost of cross-electric energy ;
while each cab may have an accustomed place on the
wire, or, as is found most workable and convenient,
cabs are taken from the lowest in regular succession.
The cab system nowadays would certainly astonish
the quiet old fogies of a thousand years ago.
This particular cab-stand was one of the specials,
in which each cab was booked to its own place. Our
usual cabby happened to be " at home," and although
five hundred feet aloft, unhooked his charge, upon our
signalling him by his own electric bell beneath, and
was with us in a trice.
We were soon whizzing through the air, and at a
height and speed proportioned to the distance of our
journey. The rules of the road, in air travel, have
gradually become of necessity more and more strict ;
and it is alike creditable and wonderful, through this
extreme care, how few accidents, comparative^ sjDeak-
ing at least, do occur. They do occur at times, how-
ever ; and most ugly and uncomfortable things they
E
50 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
are, and a precious mess they make, wlien some
thousands of splinters, alike of cabs, train-busses,
or human bodies, bundle down, all in some unex-
pected moment, upon the full tide of countless
humanity beneath. This is certainly one of the
disadvantages of our modern circumstances and
superiorities, and of all that dense population of
whose powers of progress we are so proud. But, after
all, it is marvellous how little all these disasters to
the few disturb us, the surviving many. The wreckage
of such occasional catastrophes is promptly removed,
the gaps it makes filled up on the instant, and so the
daily tide rolls on imperturbably as before.
As we loll comfortably on our cab sofa, we are not
unimpressed with the dignity of even our friend
Cabbie in these days of advanced science. There he
sits at his ease in front of us, a model of well-
jDractised skill, and mind-master of the situation, as
he perfectly regulates the s^Deed-energy, looks to his
guiding comparative-altitude barometer for his exact
level, and pilots his little ship withal through count-
less colliding dangers of the crowded scene. We
could see, too, that he was using, as his locomotive
power, a portion of the little Leyden accumulator
which, on starting, we had paid to him as his fare.
This is not uncommon — is indeed the practice, at
least with cabbies, who either don't possess much
means, or don't carry their capital about them, or
may have permanently invested their spare cash.
This leads me into saying a word or two upon —
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 51
Our Modern Money.
Dealers and traders in Energy : our money itself would
someday be Energy. — Author, chap. i.
A thousand years ago, for instance — and, by the way,
I am somehow always on the trot back to that par-
ticular time — we used gold and silver for money. But
afterwards we extricated our currency from that coarse
and troublesome, special and costly kind of circulating
medium, and substituted in its place our universal
trading article, Energy, which was thus alternately,
at the holder's option, either money for exchange and
value-measuring purposes, or ready available force
for current business use. This Money-Energy was
conveniently intensified or accumulated into small
Leydens, having much the appearance of school-boys'
marbles, only of much lighter weight. We still keep
up those old names of a thousand years ago, such as
the Leyden jar for electric accumulation, and the
Liebig for the chemical apparatus, by which the organic
is created out of the inorganic, and our food supplies
obtained by far prompter and more direct ways than
the old slow-coach, circuitous and exploded ways of
natural growth. These names, Leydens and Liebigs,
are still indeed the same, but otherwise how much all
is changed, and how different now are our advanced
processes and results !
Our money basis, then, is Energy : and we have two
kinds of money — namely, that of account, which is
decimally dealt with, and represented by paper ; and
that of action, or the intrinsic money, which is the
.Energy itself, ready for use as either money or
52 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
merchandise, and which is counted, not decimally, but
chiefly by multiples. Thus when we paid our cabbie,
as his fare, a ten-energy piece, we saw that he dis-
charged half of its force into his cab machinery. This
ElO piece of money was thus reduced to a E5, and
the next application to action would reduce it to a
E2*5, and so on. But cabbie had calculated upon the
first submultiple as sufficient to accomplish his whole
journey. Yes, and, as we also noticed, it actually did
so, thus clearing, out of our jDOckets, one hundred per
cent, profit to Mr. Cabbie. I only wish, thought I at
the time, that certain other business I could name
would pay but half or one-fourth as well. But, to
conclude our money exposition, we can always tell the
intensity of charge in these Leyden money-pieces by
the colour. From old association our highest money-
piece of that kind, that of a thousand Energy, is
made to have a yellow or golden hue, while the E500,
the E250, and so on, have other distinct hues, all
being respectively the result of specially prepared
chemico-electric relationship. Of course the decimal-
counting notes go up to sums very much higher than
such a puny amount for those days as (ElOOO) a
thousand Energy. When we thus slid our money off
metals on to Energy, we reckoned roundly that our
Energy unit (El) was equal to the old superseded
dollar. There have been increasing facilities of
Energy supply since, but also, on the other hand,
such increasing demand, that the relative value has
been fairly upheld. It may be readily understood
that our Energy Mint is an institution at constant
work, and that this monetary system gives us
marvellous facilities, as compared with the barbarous
and helpless old times of mere metallic money.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 53
Our First Business Destination.
Our first business stage was the famous Atalanta,
situated about the centre of what was once the old
Atlantic Ocean, and now usually called the Birming-
ham of the world, on account of its vast hardware
and energy factories. We have already filled up, let
me here say, all om- Atlantic, Pacific, and other old
oceans, excepting certain great main lines, or broad
canals, embracing the deeper sections, which still
remain for sanitary considerations and purj)oses.
How long future centuries, and future myriads of
increasing humanity, will yet spare such watery spaces,
I am not prepared to say. But, besides the sanitarian
case, they afford in the mean time a picturesque aspect
as seen from where we now are above, so far at least
as any one at our considerable elevation can see
through all the succession of layers of travel apparatus
between us and the ground.
Of course, owing to all this travel-filled air, only
a very reduced sunlight now reaches the earth's
surface. But this is not of so much consequence
nowadays, for several reasons. First, then, having
mopped up nearly all the ocean waters, we are but
little troubled with clouds or rain to diminish any
of the light which the sun does send to us. Next,
we have electric light everyw4iere available when
wanted to supplement that of the sun, and to give us
besides the purer light of the two, considering the
well-known yellowish tint of our luminary, of which
more further on ; besides that, as we now perfectly
separate heat from light, we can so much the more
5^ A THOUSAND TEARS HENCE.
cheaply and conveniently indulge in the latter, while
entirely free from the other when not for the time and
occasion wanted. And, again, most of our life is now
subterranean, the world's outer surface being already
utterly inadequate in area for more than a fraction of
the crowd of present human life; while throughout this
vast subterranean we have imitation suns which, for
all practical purposes, are quite as good as the one
original article outside, together with atmospheres free
from all the said noise and light-obscuration of upper
surface life. So you may see that this outside surface
life has, after all, its disadvantages as well as its
attractions, and it is by no means much preferred by
most people, house rents being just as stiff almost,
down even to third and fourth subterranean stages, as
upon the uppermost or even the outside level.
SUBTERRANT^AN LiFE, AND THE " SuB '' SySTEM.
We arrived safely at Atalanta, and just about the
usual early dinner hour, as we had planned, in order
to catch our friends more at their leisure. This is
an old business trick of making such business leisure
out of the dinner hour. But if this be reprehensible,
we have, on the other hand, kept to, or come back to,
simpler ways in both food and dress in these busy
modern times ; for how else can we get through all
we have to do in the science and progress of the time ?
The particular spot of our destination is the main
entrance to the Atalanta Great Consolidated Subter-
ranean. This vast concern is usually called, in stock-
exchange abbreviation, the Great Consols Sub, and
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 55
the place has a history which is not unworthy of our
now glancing at.
The Sub-system, to use the smart business phrase-
ology, commenced centuries ago, and even long before
it became, from sheer want of surface-room, the
absolute necessity it is now. Companies were, long
since, got up, to excavate underground abodes, which
by the natural increase of heat as you descended,
conducted people at once to temperate, semi-tropical,
and tropical regions, without any of the trouble, cost,
or danger of thousands of miles' journeys. Thoroughly
healthful ventilation was easily devised, and what
with bright electric light, and artificially imitated
tropical scenery, these subterranean abodes came to
be quite the rage of the time, especially with invalids
and the superannuated, who thus escaped at will all
the ceaseless thunder of business and progress up-
stairs.
The Stock-Exchange of these Days — Eise and
Progress of the Great Bullings.
Brown and I often heard of the bulling and bearing of the
Stock Exchange, but we never risked our money. — Author,
chap. i.
But later on, when the sub-system had become
a necessity of our crowded life, it was conducted more
systematically. The whole land surface became by
degrees literally honey-combed with sub-life, and tier
was added to tier in the progressively downward
excavation, as the ever-increasing numbers of human
beings demanded more and more standing-room and
house-room. These business sub-interests became
56 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
at last such a countless throng, as to defy all stock-
exchange ingenuity in exhibiting severally their con-
ditions, theu' prospects, and their dividends ; and it
was just at the height of this emergency, and when
the difficulty had become intolerable, that a great
genius arose upon the troubled scene for the relief of
the choked market.
This was no other than Bullings, the great stock-
broking promoter, who originated the fertile modern
idea of Consolidation, in gathering up the countless
separately existing subs into comparatively few great
consolidated interests ; and who first successfully
applied, as though by magic, his amalgamating hand
to a thousand adjacent but distinct and separate subs
in Atalanta. The huge additional capital of the new
concern, which was still, by economy of consolidated
management, to pay on the consolidated total much
more dividend than before, and the adroitness with
which he dealt with — aye, and pacified — almost count-
less superseded directors, who, with embarrassing but
irresistible compliment to Bullings himself, persisted
in valuing their seats, not by the small realities of
the past, but by those grand j)rospects of the future
which their own timely sacrifice of resignation rendered
attainable, raised Bullings' reputation to unprece-
dented height, and surrounded him with quite a
legion of eager speculators, who hung upon every
glance and sign and word of the great man. I, too,
and Brown as well, tried at times to get a wrinkle out
of Bullings, so as to guide us to a premium or two.
But the fellow, imless he scented the large order, had
ever a dodging way of looking through you, instead
of at you, and of seeming to be always so distressingly
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 57
1
^Ait of breath with the load of cares and profits he
'had constantly in his head, that it seemed positive
cruelty to take up his precious time with your com-
paratively insignificant matters.
This was not Bulling' s only great hit. He had
encountered one earlier chance of fortune, during the
last great mania for Finance, Discount, Loan and
Universal Accommodation Companies. These had
become so numerous at last, that a good, suitable, or
popularity-catching name became the chief difficulty
for the new concerns. As one grand resource in this
waj^ of course, every point of the compass had been
early seized upon in succession, and a separate com-
pany duly floated off upon each. Thus there was
the Northern, the Western, the North-western, and
so on ; but, curiously enough, no mind had been
original and comprehensive enough to think of the
collective compass itself. A rival promoter called
Foddles had indeed bethought himself of the half
points ; and, when he launched the Nor'-half-west
Company, boundless fortune seemed, for a brief
instant, at his feet ; for he had precautionarily
patented the whole fractional succession. But it was
only for an instant. The thing in that particular
direction had already been run to seed, and so poor
Foddles disappeared, overwhelmed in preliminary
expenses. The genius of Bullings dawned oppor-
tunely at this critical stage. He came down upon the
astonished market with the Whole Compass, Finance,
Discount, Loan and Universal Accommodation Com-
pany, Unlimited, and he floated it successfully with
a capital fully proportioned to the expansive dignity
of the title.
58 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
But the premiums, great as they were, which
Bulhngs was known to have harvested from this pre-
ceding concern were absolutely as nothing to what
seemed now in prospect from his grand sub-consoli-
dation scheme. He was of the boldest among specu-
lators, and the amount of stock he contrived to hold,
by aid of loans and contangoes, in support of his own
market, was the marvel of the day. Of course, on
the rising market this was all profit multiplying profit.
His great opponents were the Bears Brothers, who
were as speculatively bold in selling and depreciating
his stock, as Bullings himself was in buying and
buoying it up. But hitherto Bullings had routed the
Bears in every direction along the whole line of battle.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 59
CHAPTEE TIL
LIFE AND BUSINESS IN THE TWENTY-NINTH CENTURY.
In these times we should be filling up seas and excavating
successive surfaces beneath our feet. — Author, chap. i.
Our laboratories, said Black, would turn out a savoury
beefsteak as readily as an acid or an alkali. — Authoe,, ibid.
A Great Subterranean Abode.
We now stood at the main entrance to Bullings'
first triumph of its kind, the Great Consolidated Sub,
and we had fortunately a spare moment to admire
the splendid and accurate machinery of the lift,
which goes self-actionally up and down night and
day incessantly. We are to bear in mind that, in
the descent here, there are five successive inhabited
floors, and millions of human occupants beneath.
The lift is entirely self-acting, and is worked as part
of the general Energy contract, by which the whole
consolidation is supplied with its sunlight, its general
meteorologies, and all the other force or energy
rcLjuisites. At a si<:nal given, all of us in waiting
at the moment step into the receiving-box or apart-
ment, which is then slid into the descending lift, and
down we at once glide.
60 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Our own destination, like that of the large group in
whose company we now stood, was the third stage.
We pass in rapid succession the first and second
floors, where the respective passengers have been
duly again slid off, while fresh passengers, waiting on
each landing to go downwards, took their places ; the
descending and ascending machinery, meanwhile,
never stopping in the endless process. A brief minute
has brought us to the third stage, where we are
shunted off with the usual prompt facility, giving our
place to the other crowd in waiting to go further
down, while those going upwards are taken in with
the reversion movement on the other side.
These stages or floors are most coramonly of five
hundred feet interval. A sky of about that elevation
is considered to give a fairly natural effect over one
or two or a few square miles of subjacent dwellings.
Some rather second-class subs, in the economizing
of space, have brought down their sky even to two
hundred and fifty feet, and rents are there, of course,
much cheaper. But there is an uncomfortable and
quite an artificial effect about such low quarters,
which puts -them quite out of fashion, although keen
business men will stand anything in that way that
reduces expenses in these competitive times. But,
again, space is in short supply all round ; and the
dimensions of our apartments and homes in these
days — cribbed, cabined, and confined, as we must all
more or less be — are something of the narrowest. For-
tunately, however, in this progressive emergency, the
general sentiment is averse to a cold dreary surround-
ing of empty space. W'e should now feel utterly
desolate and lost in the huge bedrooms and sitting-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 61
rooms of a thousand years ago, more especially as
ventilation questions are now all disposed of by our
carbon-absorbents, and other self-acting maintenants
of atmos23heric purity.
A SUBTEERANEAN LANDSCAPE.
The elegant platform of the third stage, on which
we had just been landed, belongs to four separate
to'^Tis or districts, each being a great square, all filled
with a busy multitude, and each communicating in
common, at the four conjoining angles, with the
common lift. Each of these separate, subs had a
handsome entrance gateway, and we at once entered
the one in particular to which our introductions
directed us. Here a pleasant and varied landscape
confronted us. Although, as I have said, natural
green fields and such-like have been long banished
from our earth, yet that does not necessarily prevent
the most select and beautiful artificial and imitation
substitutes. And so a pretty gurgling stream of j)ure
water first saluted our eye, and ran, sparkling in the
bright mid- day sunshine, and coursing and tumbling
through the entire area, as though we had got back
to the old Scotch Highlands. The narrow bank on
either side the stream, with its pretty winding walk,
had still room for the most brilliant tropical vegeta-
tion, whose great expanding leaves spread a grateful
shelter, and whose fragrant perfume was already in
our nostrils as we crossed the entrance gateway.
In these advanced times, let us here remark, all
this resplendent scenery of apparent vegetation is
rapidly and cheaply woven out of parti-coloured glass
62 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
tissue, and is, in fact, everlasting. There is thus, of
course, an enormous advantage over the periodical
decay, and the sere and yellow leaf of mere nature.
And, again, as to the fragrance question, old botanical
descriptions tell us that often the most showy plants
and flowers have little or no smell, or even an un-
pleasant odour. Why repeat such defects by exactly
imitating nature ! On the contrary, we impart the
most delicious perfumes, and keep them exhaling, at
our option, night and day, summer and winter. In
the same free and excelsior spirit, we have not strictly
limited ourselves to nature's exact forms. We en-
slaved ourselves at first by a needless fidelity of that
narrow kind, searching through countless varieties of
natural form, modern or fossil, for such as most took
our fancy. But now we give free pla}^ to imagination
in all that matter, always remembering that imagina-
tion and its cravings are a part of our nature as
much as anything else, and mostly, too, by far the
pleasanter part of it.
Then, again, the water, that delightful set-off to
the whole landscape, may be either manufactured in
each sub, according to its own wants, or may form
part of the general energy contract. The water-
facture interest is, of course, a great concern of these
times, since the old system of seas, rivers, and natural
supplies has all passed away. The fine rock-scenery
that usually characterises water-factories, and is so
pleasing to the eye, is. simply the spare store of water,
kept in the cross-electrified solid oxyhj^drogen form,
ready to dissolve into pure water on the application
of the cross-electric. All our countless modern dwell-
ings are now as amply, and far more regularly and
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 63
methodically supplied with this indisj^ensable article,
than in the old days of natare-made water. We
must here remember Science's declaration that
nothing is ever lost ; so that all materials, whether
those of water or anything else, after coursing through
countless human bodies, ever come back to the
factories to be fabricated afresh for their life-support-
ing purposes, and to be sent coursing about as before
upon their everlasting mission.
The Hardware and Energy Trade in a.d. 2882.
Our chief introduction was to the great man himself
who contracted for this whole sub-system, and whose
vast energy stores were mostly placed in this third
level of the main shaft of the great system he con-
trolled and su]3plied. We found our man, as we had
expected, enjoying a little leisure and reflection after
his early dinner. He was quietly whiffing his cigarette
— not, however, of the dirty and hurtful tobacco of a
thousand years ago, but of some one or other of the
harmless pungencies people nowadays use instead —
as though he had not at the moment one single care
in the world, when, not an hour before, he was buried
deep in the wants of a thousand great societies, and
was presently once more to resume his duties. He
had just time remaining to show us over his works.
These vast energy-accumulations and capacities, con-
sisting partly of successive rows of excess-charged
Leydens, convertible instantaneously into current
energy, but chiefly in form of conducting-wires from
the earth's hot interior lower down, with their
apparatus for energy conversion, all occupied, as we
64 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
noticed, marvellously small space. We were most
struck by the chief '' main," through which the
great electric stream was carried, to feed all the
thousand suns of the system, and which emitted,
with an ominous force and rapidity, the whirr so
peculiar to the cross-electric current. Connected
with all this machinery of wires and other apparatus,
there is, of course, a vast hardware and iron
business.
Presently our new friend took his business seat
once more at his desk, surrounded by the repre-
sentative conductors of all the different communities
he catered for. These were each indicated by small
knobs ranged in semicircle in front of him, the knob
starting outwards, with a peculiar noise by way of
signal, when anything had gone wrong or happened
to be wanted, in the sub which it represented. After
watching and admiring the wonders of the system for
a few minutes, we bid our now busy friend adieu, and
after some few other but less important calls, we
again took cab for our next destination.
This was Old California, as it is still called, and
our chief object was to establish an agency for timely
securing, and in direct course, some share in the vast
energy supplies resulting from the occasional earth-
quake visitations to which that country was still, as
of yore, subject. But now these once terrible incidents,
instead of playing havoc with helpless property, as
was the case a thousand years ago, are, by timely
notice, foreseeing preparation, and the prompt con-
vertibility of force, made the source of vast wealth to
the population. On such happy and welcome occasions
of unusual supply, the price of energy, in the over-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 65
loaded market of the place, falls so considerably just
for the time, as to afford a good opportunity for
laying in a large stock at a materially reduced price.
But to those outside and far off, this is only to be
done by means of direct local agency and instant
action, and for all this, I am glad to say, my young
friend satisfactorily arranged.
A Glance also at the Provision Trade, and the
World's Great Food Question.
Having finished so satisfactorily my young com-
panion's business, I next put in for a turn at my
own ; and so, upon our homeward track, we alighted
at Old Cincinnati, a place which still conspicuously
commanded the world's pork and ham provision
trade. But on what an infinitely greater scale after
ten centuries, and in what a different style from
modern laboratorial resources, so much prompter
and cheaper, more cleanly and convenient, than by
the slow old processes of natural growth in the super-
seded prairie or pigsty. I made here, for my own
account, some advantageous direct arrangements. It
is indeed wonderful how some one place will command
a permanent supremacy over all others in certain
fabrications ; and in nothing is this more remarkable
than in our great provision trade. In the mere
application, for instance, of artificial essences, in
order to imitate the mellowing of time in such meat
manufacture, without incurring time's heavy cost in
interest of money, this place would hold the lead in
the great ham trade, in spite of all expenses of carriage
and agency.
E
66 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
Whilst we are now sailing homewards, after the
satisfactory completion of our home business tour, let
me say a few words on the past, present, and future
of the great provision trade, that trade which has
been in our honoured family for a full thousand
years, and which, I flatter myself, I not only
thoroughly understand, but which I have, in my day
and turn, helped to advance and extend, until my
worthy old ancestor of these ten centuries retrospect,
who began it, could hardly by possibility recognize
even one single feature of its modern aspect.
Eetkospective View of the Trade.
Going back, then, these ten centuries, we find the
world's surface still only very partially occupied by
man ; so that it was not until two or three centuries
nearer to our own crowded time that increasing
population began really to jeopardize the usual modes
of the old food-supply, by threatening to require, for
mere human elbow-room, all the surface space pre-
viously required and devoted to natural food-raising.
But all this time the steady progress in chemistry
had been carrying us more or less into laboratorial
organic production, so that certain articles, usable as
food, began to stream steadily forth from the laboratory
into the provision market. These articles at first were
not much relished, or found to be particularly savoury,
their raw new sawdusty sort of flavour keeping them
from many a table, although, as I firmly believe, and
looking to after experience, mere prejudice had much
to say in the matter. But, however this may have
been, the battle had not gone on very long, between
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 67
our necessities on the one hand, and our tastes or
preferences on the other, when we were overtaken by
the grand discovery of the cross-electric, and thence-
forward the mere food question is for all time defini-
tively solved. We had now ascertained that whereas,
by simple electricity, we have only the first organizing
step, namely, crystallization, by the cross-electric we
complete the molecular of the organic structure.
That step of progress did not indeed enable us to
impart life to this organic structure, a result involving
a still higher electric intensity which, if attainable,
was still unattained ; but, in imitation of life -action,
we can facture organic substance, giving to it all
the aspect and nutritious quality of the live and
nature-made article.
Thus, as I have said, the mere bodily food question
was solved. But hardly were we relieved of fears on
this account, ere we were being plunged into others
not one whit less alarming, namely, as to the brain
supply — the food for the material instruments of the
mind. We were then, in fact, just entering upon
the grand modern battle of the phosphate supply.
The great old philosopher Oke, as far back as nearly
eleven centuries, had said, and with solemn emphasis
and warning, " No phosphorus, no mind." Although
no longer concerned as to adequate food supply for
our bodies, we are thus seriously concerned indeed as
to how far the apparently rather limited phosphorus
supply in the world may prove adequate for all the
brains that are, in ever-increasing ratio, brought into
being.
68 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Value and Eesource of the Dead to the Living.
But this question has long lost much of its sharp
edge of urgency, since we, in all good common sense,
fell back upon the grand and perennial supply, which
nature provides at our very door, namely, our own
dead. What so fitting and proper as that the
dead, when done with all the good things they pos-
sessed and used while in life, should render them up
to the needs of the living whom they leave struggling
behind them. Thus the brains and bones of our
departed friends, with all their contained phosphates,
form no small part of any wealth which our dead may
leave us. If your friend or relative leave you no
other property, yet in leaving you heir to his material
self, you could still cherish his memory in the good
things cleared out of the legacy.
The disposal of our dead was long previously a
troublesome question, , until we had adopted the en-
lightened and economic practice now prevalent. When
the increase of people forbade any longer to poison
our soil by burial of the dead, we resorted to crema-
tion. But with still further increase the air, too,
under the cremation resource, began to be injuriously
overcharged. At length we found that what had
heretofore seemed our most troublesome enemy was
in reahty our best friend. Indeed the phosphate
market is not now the only one benefited by the
precious dead. We shall see that the question
directly touches also that of the food supply ; for after
we have gone far enough in chemical analysis to
dehumanize the structure, why not avail of any still
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 69
undissolved natural organism, the natural, as every
experienced gourmet knows, having a relish hardly
impartable to the mere fundamentally laboratorial
product. But as to all this, what, in goodness' name,
would my venerable ancestor aforesaid have thought,
if he could have foreseen his far-off descendant, a
thousand years on, dealing in such articles, as part of
his stock in trade in the great provision line !
Necessity and, as I have said, good common sense
have now settled our practice as to disposal of the
dead. Public law enjoins that they be disposed of to
the best advantage for the benefit of the living. We
can't bury them ; we can't burn them ; w^hat are we
to do with them? Why simply this, that we sell them,
and to the highest bidder, because he is presumably
the party most likely to put them to the promptest and
fullest use. The funeral, and all that is dolorous, end,
in fact, at the public auction mart, where cheerful
competition and business begins, and where the lot is
at once cleared off. The miscellaneous buyer is ever
solemnly enjoined, even in his contract note, to cut
and carve with all due reverence ; and a large and
ready charity hopes that he always does so. If
bereaved and sorrowing friends are tempted, in the
first excesses of grief, to buy-in the body, they soon
experience no end of inconvenience and bother with
the suspicious sanitary authorities, ever on the scent
at such intermeddling, lest an unwholesome nuisance
should be created in the neighbom^hood. Thus all
find it best, with their dead, to acquiesce in the
regular routine, and to have their sohd consolation in
the pecuniary proceeds from the public roup.
And indeed, when the mind has once quitted its
70 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
temporary material abode, what more is that deserted
tenement, either to its former occupant, or to other
people, than any other edifice that a tenant may have
occupied and quitted ! If there is any one mortal
thing I despise and detest more than another, it is
cant about this very question ; and I must admit
that, with all our boasted progress, we are not yet
quite free of it at times, even in such an everyday
phase of our life and business. There are, however,
some odd encounters on occasions. For instance, when
Brown's step-grandmother died not long ago — a re-
markably old and portly lady, who had accumula-
tively secured her own goodly share of phosphates
and other valuables in the chemico-provision line —
I was not by any means the only one bent upon a lot
so decidedly over-average. In fact, I had had my
eye, preparatorily, on the old lady for some time.
Not that I — I ever — even for one moment — of course
not — the thing is absurd. I had the greatest respect
for her. But, really, the sad event being, of course,
an ever nearing certainty, unless one's weather eye
is always open in these business days of merciless
competition, one inevitably goes to the wall. In
short, I was resolved upon the lot, and got it, and
handsomely indeed it cut up for me all round. I
rather wondered at Brown's timid bidding, with all
his ascertaining opportunities. But I refrained from
vexing him about my profits. And, again, what an
odd conjuncture for friend Brown, if he should be
smacking his lips, some day, over a chop at the public
luncheon bar, direct from the component atoms of the
old lady !
This latter remark brings me to what is by no
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 71
means the least important section of the difficulties,
the responsibilities, and, I may add, the respecta-
bilities concerned in the modern provision trade. As
I have already hinted, our respected dead are more
to us, whom they leave sorrowing behind, than
phosphate supply only, all-important as that may
be. They are, in fact, valuable masses of natural
organism, ready-made and cost-fre€ to society's hand ;
and the only question is, how far must chemical
analysis proceed to entirely dehumanize the subject,
without, at the same time, needlessly destroying and
wasting natural molecular structure, and the inimit-
able superiority of the mellowing flavour that comes
of it. We call the complete analysis the Atomic,
reducing, as it does, all previous structure to the
ultimate atoms. The less complete we call the
Molecular; and the great question ever is, how far
this needs to go. Even the most accurate and precise
chemists find some debatable area; and this area
is ever a trouble to the respectable and conscientious
of the trade, who are perpetually tantalized by seeing,
only too clearly before them, the superior profits of
supermolecule, and of every step short-taken towards
the ultimate atom. It is, alas, but too well known
that there is a class of restaurants where the super-
molecule is only too loosely guarded, and where
unscrupulous gourmets stream in incessantly, paying
freely the extra prices demanded, and asking no
questions.
72 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
CHAPTER IV.
OUR FOREIGN BUSINESS TOUR — THE OUTER CIRCUIT.
Outside the world altogether, as White predicted, voyaging
far and away upon the Ether-ocean. — Author, chap. i.
Young Brown and I had completed our home tour,
and were safely back again within forty-eight hours.
Time is money in these busy days. But the next
section of our business tour is not quite so promptly
despatched. We were now, in short, to get ready for
the foreign tour, and I had certain plans of my own
in regard to it, which I must here allude to. First,
we would begin with the outer circuit. In taking,
lastly, the inner circuit, I must needs gratify an old
ambition I have indulged to visit the sun. That
was still a difficult, nay, even a dangerous voyage,
and, consequently, I never could get my wife's consent
to embark upon it, even although I held out the pros-
pects of solid profits in Helium exchanges and other
solar trading. The fact is, that the reputed danger
constituted still the protection of the solar trade,
while that of the planets, the more adjacent of them
particularly, was already ground down to the very
smallest return, by universal competition, that bane
of all modern business.
A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE. 73
My Various Plans and Projects of Travel.
I meant, in fact, on this opportune occasion, to
slip off quietly without fully apprising my old lady
of my whole intentions — blessings on her anxious but
warm heart ! I had now, in fact, quite a host of
projects in view, in taking advantage, to the full, of
the convenient excuse I had ai'med myself with,
of escorting our young friend, in whom both wife and
self were now so equally interested. First, then,
young Brown and I would take the outer circuit by
ourselves, making Mars our first stage ; and, after a
visit to the First Jovian (to use our smart commercial
phrase for Jupiter's first moon), returning home by
way of one or two of the larger planetoids circulating
between Jupiter and Mars. That would comprise our
outer circuit, and would embrace the chief fields of
interplanetary trading as yet in that direction, Jupiter's
further moons being too little advanced in organic life
for trading purposes, while Saturn's system involves,
besides even a still more backward lunar condition,
the time and cost of a much greater travel distance.
Next, as to the inner circuit, I meant to bribe old
Brown to accompany us. My special object was to
have his company and counsel, shrewd old business
head as he had on his shoulders, in my proposed
solar visit. The relative positions of the inner planets,
about the time of our proposed journey, would enable
us best to take Venus and Vulcan outwards, touching
at Mercury on our way back. Our young friend's
business projects took him with us as far only as
Vulcan, where we proposed to leave him, old Brown
74 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
and I going onwards to the sun, and the party re-
joining at Mercury, en route homewards. And, lastly,
I had made sure that our distinguished friend, White,
was to take personal charge, on this particular occa-
sion, of his splendid solar liner, which was to go in
its turn at the time about which we had calculated to
be ready.
Let me here allude for a moment to my excellent
and intimate old friend White, whose nautical genius
had now raised him to the highest position in the
great ether-ocean navigation of our day. He is, in
fact, at the head of the great companies and chief
fleets of shipping for both the outer and the inner
circuit. And advanced though he now is in years,
yet .the fire of youth still smoulders within the old
tar. Still, he assumes the helm on special or great
occasions, and this was one of these, in consideration
of some of the company, I rather flattered myself
that my being of the party had its weight to stimulate
the redoubted old navigator into action, to say nothing
of any additional weight in friend Brown. I had a
good joke with both about keeping the matter quiet
to my wife.
A Bargain with Old Brown.
Brown was not a bird so easily caught. He was
much more of a stay-at-home than either White or
myself. I had to make a solid bargain with the
chary old chap, and here was the way I got over
him. Besides the prospect of some profitable jobbing
in solar wares, a book of our solar adventures was to
be written, and Brown was to have full half profits.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 75
Brown had a profound idea of my powers of pen. He
would even say, contented mortal that he was, that
this was one thing about which he grievously envied
me. Consequently, I was to engage to do all the
writing. But as I knew the fellow to be a shrewd
common-sense observer of things in general, and in
a business way in particular, I reckoned on Brown
for endless padding to our projected volume. Thus
I bribed him for his very acceptable company, reckon-
ing the while that as much as I gave I would get
out of him somehow in return.
A Glimpse of the Great Bullings of the Stock
Exchange.
Passing the Stock Exchange vicinities one day
during my preparations, I just contrived to get once
more a sight of Bullings. Fain would I have inter-
viewed the great man of the place and the day ; but
surrounded as he was by many others bent on the
like mission, and in face of the wary old fellow's
practised adroitness in not wasting his time over the
smaller to the sacrifice of the larger orders, a mere
casual in that line like myself had no chance. The
boldness and luck of the man were astounding, and
filled people's minds with admiring awe. He was
said to be at that very moment deep in a huge
speculation, to buoy up still further the already ex-
traordinary premium of the Great Consols Sub stock,
and to have everywhere routed his ever-dogging
enemies the Bears, His contangoes and carry-overs,
and his borrowings, in general on the smallest margins,
were upon a scale as unj)recedented as was the fortune
76 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
which he was thus enabled, by anticipation, on balance,
already to call his own.
Yet one more of my Projects.
Young Brown and I had booked our passages for
Mars in one of White's regular mail liners. There
is already a large business done by our earth with
that little but active neighbour of ours, whose people,
although with some odd and peculiar ways, which
I shall have presently to allude to, get on with us
very fairly. There is already also a wonderful bustle
of shipping. By White's kind help I secured very
comfortable berths, and I had, in my own case at
least, a special object in so doing, in connection
with yet another design in these travels. There
must, after all, be something in Brown's notion
of my turn for the pen, as that potent imj)lement
is ever in my hand upon any leisure occasion. And
now with well on to a whole week before me as we
voyaged to Mars, I was ready to enter upon an old
project — no less than that of sketching out a retro-
spective history of the last thousand years. I am
often wondering what is to be the state of things
in and about our world a thousand years hence ;
but there is much interest, and a good deal more
of reality, in ascertaining and comparing the changes
of the like interval just passed. Such, then, is the
vocation I propose for myself during the interval
of leism'e in crossing inter-Marsian space, and the
still more considerable sj)aces that are to follow;
and, as I have revolved the subject for many a past
day, I am now quite ready to fall to work.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 77
Off to Mars.
There was a goodly throng of passengers. Mars
was not quite at his nearest to us just at this time,
so as to give us the shortest possible voyage, but he
was approaching that relative point as between his
orbit and ours, and consequently the usual busy season
of Marsian intercourse had set in. Of course it is at
such times of the relative approach of the two worlds
that there is most intercommunication. The greatly
longer voyage at other times is usually too costly,
both in time and money, for most traders and
passengers. Keen business competition in these
days keeps us to close calculations and all possible
economies in this way. Young Brown and I amused
ourselves for a few spare minutes in watching the
scientific preparations for departure ; the former,
however, intermingling a business view of the case,
as he was interested in certain late improvements
in the more accurate projection of the protective
cross-electric lines to be thrown out towards Mars,
alike to guide our direction, and to indicate, warn
and shelter us as to meteoric dangers.
Voyaging Incidents, Safeguards, and Accommo-
dations.
Away we go. There is at first a constant racket
and bustle as we thread our path through the
travelling throng which, passing by us in all directions,
occupies our lower atmosphere. Even when we had
got above and outside the denser mass of all this
78 A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE.
locomotive life, and could then, of course, much
accelerate our speed, there was still some noise in
the mere rapid cleaving of the air, greatly attenuated
although it now began to be. Soon, however, we
cleared these very outermost limits of our planet,
and entered upon the perfect peace of purely ethereal
space. Many have written, poetically, ardently, and
otherwise, on this subject, and upon the marked and
extraordinary change of the traveller's surroundings.
For my part, reducing all that sort of thing to the
common sense of a business view, I find the striking
change in question both useful and agreeable. One
gets back all the fresher to one's office, with renovated
powers for work, after such outside trips to a neigh-
bouring planet, or even the short crossing to our
moon.
Some of our party still found amusement in watch-
ing our earth, as we now rapidly receded from it.
Of course, half a century ago, when our illustrious
Black first discovered, by help of the reduplication
of the cross-electric, the means of our material loco-
motion in outside space, all such sights were novelties
and marvels. But, now that habit has blunted the
edge of that sort of thing, and business pervades
its every corner, we leave this every-day sight-seeing
to our school-boys, or to those high poetic flights
which can make mental food out of any mortal thing,
common or uncommon, in either earth or heaven.
We are not, on this occasion, in the very fastest
express, otherwise we should do our distance in
somewhat less than the five days we expect to occupy.
But having use for the extra time, in view of my
literary efforts, I the less grudge it. The cheaper
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 79
fare, too, of our present mixed goods a^nd passenger
mail train was not altogether out of calculation, the
higher speeds of the solely passenger expresses
requiring more costly management and apparatus,
and being thus altogether more expensive. After
a good dinner on board, which is given in fair style,
considering the narrow and elongated quarters stewards
have to deal with in ether-ocean shipping, I retreat
to my own quarters and prepare to begin my labours.
But before that, I must needs allow myself just one
parting glance at our cross-electric protective panoply.
It surrounds us like a light but mysterious auroral
mist, to protect from meteorite impact and from other
space-filling dangers our slight and fragile craft.
All seeming in order there, imparting a comfortable
security, I take, ere turning in, just one last fond
look of our retreating earth, already dwarfed by half
a million miles interval, and already also somewhat
out of line with our direction, through the progress
meanwhile in her own orbit, as she rolls everlastingly
along her grand circumsolar highway.
Let me here also glance at our accommodations,
and our other navigation arrangements in general,
all of which would have much amazed and perplexed
our travelling forefathers of a thousand years ago.
Our main cabin is, of course, perfectly air-tight ; and
the air-supply, at the accustomed degree of pressure,
is maintained in constant purity and fulness of supply
by the anticarbonic rectifiers and the oxygen reserves.
But if we want perfect quiet — which was, for example,
an object with myself in view of my prospective
studies — we can at once completely void our little
separate airtight berths, and thus, heed from sound-
80 A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE.
conveying air, sit when we choose in the silence
of very death. And this void or vacuum we usually
make, not by the wasteful method of rushing out all
the elastic precious breathing element, by the dis-
charge-tap into space, but by the almost equally
prompt cross-electric solidification of the air com-
ponents, which are thus made handy, in small cakes
or bars on the shelf, ready to be reconverted into air
at will as required. We have also convenient dress
and other arrangements by which we pass and repass
between the main cabin and these small separate
berths, without permitting air into the desired vacuum.
And again, when sitting in the vacuum, in the
absence of accustomed air-pressure, we substitute
for our outer man a certain pressure of elastic
clothing, while the inner is regulated by the separate
breathing apparatus. Every passenger is precaution-
arily supplied with this separate and independent
apparatus, in case of any unforeseen fracture, either
from within or from without, by which all our cabin air-
supply might suddenly vanish like a whiff of smoke.
Practice, as well as necessity, makes us wonderfully
efficient in all these complex artificial arrangements
of our advanced modern civilized and scientific life.
I soon got to be quite charmed with this perfect quiet
of vacuum, which was often, in fact, of a very striking
character — as when groups of passengers, only a few
inches away from me, and separated only by the
thinnest of sheet-diamond partition, would seem to
be carrying on a perfectly mute show of animated
talk or still more animated laughter; and I was
presently making very fair progress with my pro-
jected historical retrospect.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 81
CHAPTEE V.
A RETROSPECT OF A THOUSAND YEARS.
Progress, what is it ? "In effect," said Yellowly, "the
suiting and smoothing of life's way to the great and struggling
masses." — Author, chap. i.
What plan should I adopt with my proposed retro-
spective history ? How should I best record the vast
progress effected by our busy humanity in the past
thousand years ? It occurred to me that I would,
first of all, lay before the reader a few special causes
which markedly contributed to that wonderful progress.
They were causes which, in most cases, began to come
into operation about the time my retrospect begins,
namely towards the end of the nineteenth and the
opening of the twentieth century. I attach therefore
great importance to that particular time ; and no doubt
that is why it is, curiously enough, always somehow
so much more in my mind than any other of my re-
trospect. Some of these causes — as, for instance, the
resolution of the State to see to the universal educa-
tion of the people ; the inclusion, also, of technical
and scientific education ; the complete removal, by a
method presently to be noticed, of the parliamentary
block of public business ; the abolition of international
G
82 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
war, and of the national waste of a professional
soldiery ; and, more perhaps than aught else, the
rapid healthy increase of intelligent people, under the
gradual but steady solution of the food question,
together with the fact that the head and hand of
woman, when she had secured all her rights, were
in their various ways as active for progress as those
of the man, — had altogether a most powerful and
quite unprecedented after-effect on the advance and
well-being of our people. After a brief sketch of each
of the more prominent of these various causes, I
purpose to take the general progress century by
century. I shall first attend mainly to that of our
own country and people, until the time when our
previously separate national interests have merged
finally into that of the whole advancing world at
large. We enter upon this great change with the
last half of our retrospect ; after which we have to
deal with that entire world which then began to
assume its present grand aspect of one homogeneous
society and substantially of one S23eech.
Let me here parenthetically remark, that it is
indeed only from old association, and from the addi-
tional circumstance that both my residence and my
business location are still in the old ancestral quarters
of a good thousand years ago, that I find myself still
keeping up the exploded anomaly of speaking and
thinking of my people and my country, as though
these were a still existing distinction in the world.
" Old England " has now finally disappeared from
the earth, alike in her distinctive nationality, as in
her physical islandic outlines of once familiar sea-
coast and scenery. In the contest of races which
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 83
has been going actively on for the most part of the
past thousand years, and in '' the survival of the
fittest," we English, along with the races kindred to
us, have everywhere carried the day, and everywhere
all others have been crowded off the world's too
narrow surface. The French and German tongues,
the Eussian and Chinese, all lingered more or less
in a protracted fight for dominancy or for life, while
John Chinaman's prolific race was amongst the verj^
last to succumb to the universal intrusion of our
vigorous section of the white skins. The conjoined
British and American Empires had at last everywhere
predominated, to overspread our earth with the
English s^Deech and the Kelto-German races.
Some Chief Causes of our great Progress — Great
Increase of Population.
When we consider that the world, just as it is to-day,
when we are upon the verge of the thirtieth century of
our era, has considerably over a million times more
people than it was possessed of when we were just
upon the twentieth century, a thousand years ago, and
that all this multitude is not only kept alive, but
is even prosperous and comfortable throughout besides,
as well as everywhere busy as bees over the earth's
surface, both above and below ground, we cannot fail,
in view of such a lively throng of working heads and
hands, to be aware of, at any rate, one grand cause
of our progress during the interval I am about to
survey. Old prophetic Malthus, as things have
turned out, sounded quite a false alarm, with his
fears for the food-supply as against the population-
84 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
increase of the future. For centuries after his long-
past day, the still thinly peopled world had food
enough in the old accustomed natural food-raising
ways, when its comparatively sparse inhabitants had
successively occupied and ploughed up the many
vacant areas which the world could still show during
and for long after the nineteenth century. But, as
we have already hinted, when these previously empty
spaces got completely covered with human beings,
and their cultivation was thus no longer possible,
chemistry had already come to man's help, to give
him food by much shorter and more convenient
processes than the tedious roundabout of old-fashioned
Nature.
The Woman as well as the Man at Work for the
World.
Early in my retrospect, as indeed I have already
said, the woman also was at full work for the world's
progress, as w^ell as the man. The sex had fought
bravely and well the battle for this right — the right,
which should be common to both sexes, to help on
the ever- advancing world. And this battle being
gained, the world had since experienced the difference
of pace due to the augmented numbers and variety
of the propellants at its wheels. There was also
another important consequence to this victory. The
two sexes, thus busily and usefully occupied, met
each other more frequently in the walks of industry,
es23ecially in their earlier life, and thus formed
attachments which kept them steady until terminated
in marriage. Thus marriage, and mostly early
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 85
marriage, became the universal rule. Heavy family
responsibilities followed of course, and the cause of
population-increase was everywhere ascendant. But
against that one expense, formidable as it might be,
there arose concurrently quite a host of economies,
moral, social and material, every item of which was
a distinct, although a varied kind of gain to society.
And thus, for example, ere the twentieth century had
run its course, our society was able to boast that
two great social evils of the nineteenth had practically
disappeared, namely, the j)ublic-house in its old
familiar and ungainly aspect, and that heretofore
sup]30sed ineradicable feature of all society, which
had appropriated to itself, j)ar excellence, the title of
" the social evil."
Universal Education of the People.
Although the State is the only parent possible to the
whole national family, the State was long of apprehend-
ing, and duly undertaking, its educational duties as
such. But towards the end of the nineteenth century
this duty was at last begun, and a most memorable era
was thus inaugurated in the national life and history.
At the outset there was much uncertainty, as well
as cm'iosity, at what might be the result, upon the
society at large, of our universal education. Looking
back from so many centuries, our subject possesses
the certainty of fact, as well as the interest of a great
problem. We shall see the effects as we stejD along,
century by century, through my retrospect.
I shall merely say here that, after some preliminary
exjperiences, we entirely reversed most of our old educa-
86 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
tional ways. Thus grammar was taught last instead
of first. Then, instead of Greek and Latin, tliere was
a general grounding in science, and an after special
grounding in technical education. The dead languages,
in fact, were not taught at all, except for special
pursuits and capacities ; but, instead, there was
thorough proficiency in the leading modern languages
— in two or three such as the rule, and in more
according to taste or capacity, or the final bent or
business of life. One important and far-reaching
change consisted in learning to read always as though
naturally speaking. The old drawl was insufferable,
and this dramatic method alone was sufficient to send
the vigour of life, as compared with the languor
of death, through a great and varied section of edu-
cation. Again, the increasing multiplicities of study
demanded all the possible economies of simplicity
in charging the minds and memories of youth ;
and thus varying forms of the same letter or cypher
were done away with, while writing and printing
were brought as nearly as might be into one and
the same aspect. A special feature of the new
system was the general medical supervision, which
was throughout of the most careful and discriminative
character. With all these changes, facilities, and
safeguards, capped by those of the decimal and metric
system, education was deprived of half its difficulties,
or rather, as was the happier result, the pupil was
passed, with the same time and exertion as of old,
through a double curriculum.
Education was " compulsory," if we must use that
ugly term in such a cause ; as though we described
the hospital as for compulsory curing, and the parental
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 87
home as a compulsory refuge. Education finally
settled itself, as was inevitable as well as appropriate,
in view alike of the present and the future, into the
free gift of the State, impartially awarded to all its
children, in degrees and varieties according to their
natural capacity and aptitude. But, to the national
credit, this was rarely any expense to the State, as
the large and increasing means of its more prosperous
citizens were ever emulatively offered to defray the
cost. Eepeatedly, at particular stages of the educa-
tional course, the millions of pupils were each and all
carefully examined as to their respective dispositions,
and their attainments physical and mental, so as to
direct specially the further and higher education..
The State thus appreciatively overlooked aiid esti-
mated the vast and varied field of its future prospect
and hope. It was truly the spectacle of a precious
and priceless mine, which the State, as the privileged
owner, could not but treat with all that science and
skill which should secure from it the largest and best
outcome.
The generation which inaugurated all this great
change was not indeed fully rewarded by seeing and
enjoying all its effects. Not indeed until the
twentieth and succeeding centuries did we experi-
ence the full benefit of that great national move-
ment. When scientific and technical education had
come into full play, every one of the almost countless
mass of workers was converted into an actual daily and
hourly combatant in the battle of science, as well as of
business and general progress. In thus ever marshall-
ing forth the educated talent of the great mass of the
nation, the new system gave to progress its prodigious
88 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
after-impulse, and so at last amply rewarded the
patriotic and far-seeing State, for its first heavy bill
of cares and costs, by the greatness of the country's
future. The effect of this system also, to level, by
its quiet action, the hereditary class walls of an old
society, and to assure everywhere the healthful pre-
dominance of personal merit and public usefulness,
has always powerfully contributed to our political
contentment, and to the stability of the social fabric.
A New Page turned in University Life.
Even material progress may be largely aided by
social and moral advance. Such was our experience
after the nineteenth century, when, happily, our
youth required no longer to quit the amenities and
protective surroundings of home, in order to complete
their education at the university. The wider range
of female education, which came in with the twentieth
century, had much to do with this improved aspect of
the university question. The attendance of both sexes,
as regarded this higher education, became so large
and general, that additional universities were neces-
sary over all the country. Every dwelling was thus
so near to one or other of these institutions, as to
render unnecessary a permanent residence at the
university, or elsewhere than at the parental home ;
and thus a practice, but too fertile of deteriorating
influences for after-life, was wholly given up. The
** University Express," filled morning and evening,
going and returning, with the fresh young life of the
rising race, was one of the stirring and characteristic
railway spectacles of the time.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 89
Our sons thus escaped, at their most critical age,
exposure to much evil. The restraining modesty,
natural to youth, is usually proof against the ordinary
tear and wear of society; but the exposure of old
university life had been only too apt to entirely break
down and dissipate its barriers, and to send forth the
youth into his maturer life deprived of those restrain-
ing tendencies, and that regulated moderation of
desire, which are so indispensable to life's highest
efforts and most real enjoyment. Under the better
auspices alluded to, our youth betook themselves both
more steadily and more heartily to all the science and
business progress of their day, and brought, as well,
a greater strength and endurance, mind and body, to
the world's work. The old saying that the youth
would turn out all the better man by a free and early
sowing of his wild oats, is about as well founded as
that other old saw, which, in spite of medical contra-
diction, was wont to aver that our bodies were
improved after having been scourged by fever, small-
pox, syphilis, and the other ills that flesh is heir to.
Cessation of War — how and when it came about.
If the world's pace was so visibly accelerated, as I
have had occasion to notice, by the happy solution of
the woman's rights problem, and the consequent acces-
sion of the whole sex to the ranks of its workers, there
was yet another change of the twentieth century, which
was hardly, if at all, less momentous, even in the same
work-and-labour direction. This was the final cessa-
tion of war, and the converting of all war's levies and
expenses into the interests of peace and progress.
90 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
The professional soldier had ceased to be a European
feature ere the twentieth century had run out. The
remarkable, simple, and indeed somewhat sudden
and even unexpected w^ay in which international war
came to its end — became, in fact, a practical impossi-
bility, as between, at least, the chief civilized powers,
from the practice, which came to be adopted in
common, of training, all their respective youth to
military drill, and the effective defensive use of the
modern arms of precision — is one of the striking
incidents with which my retrospect will have presently
to deal. I will only meanwhile remark, that the
effect of this result upon the civilized world's senti-
ment, and the mutual intercourse of its societies,
and upon the entire world's general forward advance,
could hardly be overrated.
Trades' Union Eeform, and advancing Condition
OF OUR Working Classes.
No cause of our past progress was more real or
more visible, during, at least, the earlier centuries of
my retrospect, than that reforming and reconstructing
spirit, which was introduced into all trade union life
by its illustrious leader and renovator, Yellowl}^ It
was Yellowly's proud prediction that his class-
fellows Vv^ere to take the van of future progress, and
that, to this end, trade union law would be even
stricter than the public law itself, and trade union
economic views and practice more unchallengeable
than the dicta of economic professors ; and he
survived far enough into the twentieth century to see
these ardent hopes in fair way to fulfilment.
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 91
The twentieth century proved, indeed, specially
favourable to the working class generally, by the
great amelioration of the conditions of labour, as well
as its improved efficiency, through the universally
extended application of machinery. The quick turn
over of capital, and the small amounts thus required
in this w^ay, were favourable to the co-operative
association of working-men, which accordingly made
marked progress in this century. And it was only
to be expected that this advanced material condition,
in the great mass of the population, associated as
it was with universal educational attainment, should
have an elevating effect on mind and habits ; and
there was, indeed, in these respects, a great advance
along the w^hole industrial front.
Amongst other effects, Yellowly survived to see, in
the fair way of realization, the desire of his heai-t — that
the vast expenditure of his class upon intoxicating
drinks, which he so much grudged, even as a mere
money question, should be diverted to purposes more
useful to the class and more creditable to the man. He
had hoped that the very marked reform in that respect,
which the nineteenth century had brought to the
richer and employing classes, might, with the twentieth
century, reach also the great mass of the employed ;
and ere he quitted the world he had the satisfaction
to see that this hope was not to be disappointed. We
shall also have occasion to see how, in carrying out
with more and more practised hand, the economies
of co-operative dwellings, our working classes were
enabled to house themselves in large and commodious,
and even elegant and elegantly furnished, mansions,
where, as an entirely new feature of their life, the
92 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
cheerful and varied social attractions became alto-
gether superior to those of the old public-house. As I
have already said, that seemingly inevitable accompani-
ment of our social life of the nineteenth century, had
virtually ceased to haunt us, at least in any recogniz-
able aspect, ere the twentieth had closed.
A Word on Co-operation — its Economies and
Progress.
The economic marvels of co-operation had not
escaped attention in the last half of the nineteenth
century ; but it was only in the twentieth that the
system attained such extension and indeed univer-
sality of application, as brought comparative abund-
ance and comfort to even the very poorest classes,
and constituted quite a new era, not only in the
economies of the production and distribution of
society's material wants, but even more strikingly in
the social comfort and cheerfulness of the new style of
the homes of the great mass of the people.
The cheapness of wholesale dealing was everywhere
availed of. The nineteenth century had indeed ex-
perienced something of this benefit, in the Civil
Service and other "co-operative store-keeping; " but
that had been chiefly for the good of classes already
comparatively well-off. In the twentieth century, on
the other hand, this co-operation had spread its gains
and savings to the entire people, including even the
very poorest. The revolution thus brought to many
vocations, as, for example, the necessary superseding
of a vast mass of small shopkeeping, was, in reality,
after all, much less rapid, and much less disturbing
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 93
to society than theorizing fears had predicted. The
thorough understanding amongst all classes and
vocations — that the car of progress must have its
perfectly free course, and that no one class or trade
was to be protected at the expense of the rest — had
everywhere the best possible effect in stimulating
all parties to face their respective contingencies, and
to enter heartily upon the larger and better field
everywhere opened to them. The great resom'ces
arising out of the universal diffusion of education
enabled such classes as were in turn from time to
time affected by the various and not seldom rapid
economic changes of that stirring age, to bear them
with comparative impunity, and to adjust themselves
with more or less facility to the new circumstances.
Then, again, the co-operative principle had, with
this twentieth century, successfully j)ervaded all
industrial life, thus largely realizing Yellowly's
ambitious anticipations as to his class-fellows be-
coming themselves principals instead of servants in
their various work. This position was all the more
easily attained amongst a universally educated
people, by the greater efficiency and promptitude
of result given to labour by universal mechanical
appliance. Large capital became thus, for many
kinds of undertakings, almost quite a secondary con-
sideration. By tlie cheapness and excellence of all
kinds of machinery, which our skilled countrymen
turned out at home, or our free ports invited from all
parts of the world, and by the quick turn over of work
which such machinery effected, co-operations of
working-men were enabled, even with very limited
spare means, to compete successfully with great
94 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
capitalists in most of the cases of ordinary enterprise.
When strikes did occur in the twentieth century, the
alternative of having co-operation to fall back upon
was always one of the considerations of the case, and
a consideration which the employer, most of all, had
to keep precautionarily in view. Indeed not more
important was it for the welfare of the striker himself,
than for that of society at large, that the former
should strike for the alternative merely of a different
form of work, rather than for a complete cessation
from labour.
The Great Parliamentary Block, and its Final
Cure by the " Special Hansard."
The tactics of obstruction by small minorities, as
on the occasion of the grave and perplexing Irish
questions, which crowded upon our Parliament towards
the close of the nineteenth century, were not by any
means the sole cause of parliamentary block, although
they happily contributed a powerful and timely
stimulus towards the eventual removal of a con-
tinually increasing difficulty in national legislation.
All could see that the endless legislative needs of an
advancing civilization could be but inadequately
responded to in parliament under the old accustomed
modes of procedure, even if these were never other-
wise than honestly dealt with. Some process was
wanted by help of which, within reasonable hours,
or even, for that matter, within any possible hours
whatever, all the required public measures could be
adequately discussed as well as passed and enacted.
Prior to that great and complete cure which was
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 95
finally effected, and which, as I am now about to
explam, acqmred the name of the '' Special Hansard,"
all attempted remedies had the defect, more or less,
of saving time by the prevention, exclusion, or sup-
pression of discussion. Mind and opinion, good, bad,
or indifferent, were thus alike shut out. Such a
system, failing the possibility of any other, might
be of necessity submitted to in cases of predetermined
obstruction, and of glaring abuses of parliamentary
privileges. But it proved intolerable in any general
application, and thus the parliamentary block re-
mained substantially uncured by such mere shifts
as the ''cloture," and got worse and worse from
session to session, and from day to day. The ac-
cumulation of postponed, or abortive, or wholly
unattempted measures had reduced successive premiers
and ministries at last to blank despair.
Necessity is ever the fertile mother of invention
or expedient. Very early in my retrospect, it
happened that one of the overwhelmed premiers of
that time, after exhibiting to the House the otherwise
hopeless aspects of his case, besought its tolerance
of the experiment of a new procedure. The sugges-
tion was substantially this, that instead of the usual
speeches upon important propositions,, members
should give their views in writing. These written
views formed a special publication of parliament,
which took the afterwards famous name of the
" Special Hansard." Sufficient intervals and oppor-
tunities were given for adequate discussion, recon-
sideration, or suggestion, after which each successive
measure went swiftly and quietly to final division.
Parliament having assented, perhaps, at the time,
96 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
not less helplessly than willingly, to try the new
method, it was brought at once into life and action ;
and it promptly became far too indispensable to each
parliamentary programme to be ever afterwards
abandoned. Thus was begun an altogether new
parliamentary system, by which successive ministries
could meet, easily and adequately, the legislative
wants of their time, and the Government of our
advancing country could be piloted with comparative
facility through centuries of after progress.
Various remarkable and beneficial changes followed
in the wake of the " Special Hansard." The system
certainly developed a more wide and free and careful
expression of view; and there was an almost in-
stantaneous collapse of all unseemly or disturbing
scenes. Again, when so much of parliamentary work
was transferred from the floor of the House to that
of the bureau, alike with members generally as with
ministers, and when, by " Special Hansard," so much
of the House's time was saved, the parliamentary
hours took a prompt accordance to the new circum-
stances. A minister could now be carrying through,
all at one and the same time, as many great measures
as there was occasion for, and yet be simultaneously
and quietly conducting the other and ordinary business
of Parliament, and all within some few reasonable
and convenient hours of the afternoon or evening.
No after consequence of this "Special Hansard"
system was either more striking or more generally
useful than the habit it encouraged, or rather of
necessity enforced, of concise expression. Indeed,
from the very first, every reasonable mind must have
foreseen that the chief chance of being attended to,
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 97
in the crowd of competitive views, lay in a judicious
brevity. As time went on, and the field of scientific
and business life took its due concurrent expansion,
this brevity of expression, into which, in its particular
department, the " Special Hansard " had graduated us,
became a general feature of all society's many
vocations, and thus enabled the advancing race to
keep up with a breadth of knowledge, which, other-
wise, must have been an attainment impossible alike
to time and strength.
State Aid to Progress by Means of Special
Trusts.
The old question as to whether the State should
intervene in general progress, or leave the whole
field to private enterprise, received a happy solution,
after the nineteenth century, in the princijole of
Special. Trusts, in which the State would originate
and conduct certain classes of great and deskable
projects, but without involving the country's govern-
ment in pecuniary responsibility. Each such project
was expected to clear its own cost eventually; and
if not by ordinary reproduction, at any rate, in the
final resort, by that natural increment of value, in
a progressive country, through the mere efflux of
time. Of course, therefore, anything to be attempted,
in this promising and convenient way, must neces-
sarily be only of a kind calculated for such a result.
Many such works successively presented themselves ;
and thus grand and beneficial works, of a kind, or
upon a scale, which private enterprise could hardly
have even dreamt of, were duly entered upon, and,
H
98 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
after a more or less protracted term of years, success-
fully carried through, free of any ultimate cost.
We did not, indeed, keep quite strictly, in every case,
to where the sure " unearned increment of value "
of the real estate was ultimately to clear all costs.
Some of these s]3ecial great national works were
adventured upon under more ordinary prospects as
to final reimbursement ; as when the bold but suc-
cessful and convenient project was taken up of con-
centrating all the public offices in one grand and
commodious edifice, reared upon the less crowded
space, at the time, just a little outside the metropolis.
The costs in this case were met, partly by sale of
the superseded offices in their too crowded but
valuable sites, and partly by the increasing fees and
rentals of the future, as I shall have presently more
fully to tell. And, again, when the State took in
hand the inauguration of a great national theatre,
and other such works, of a kind which private en-
terprise was not ready for, or not disposed to try in
the way most desirable or beneficial, we would, in
such cases, group the several results under one trust,
with its better promise of a successful average. But
any such works were exceptionally few, and only the
occasional subjects of the special trust system. The
regular field lay rather in those works which repaid
first cost by the reliable future rise of value in the
nation's real estate, through the certain advance of
the people, in numbers, in science and commerce,
and in wealth.
The first great step in this direction — in the regular
road, so to say, of these special trusts — was the ever
famous resanitation, or rather sanitary reconstruc-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 99
tion of London, a work which, in its main result, as
we shall shortly see, was successfully carried through,
as anticipated, in ahout a third of a century, although
partially protracted, in view of certain other objects,
for some time longer. But even greater than this
great project, and necessarily protracted in its re-
demptive operation for a much longer interval, was
the magnificent work of the embankment and recla-
mation of the Lower Thames, by which English soil
acquired an accession of some hundreds of square
miles, at a comparative trifle of concurrent outlay;
the cost having eventually been mainly defrayed by
the said advance in value due to a busy century of
national progress.
These special trust enterj)rises involved, of course,
a vast outlay of ready money at the first. The source
of supply lay in the successive issue of trust stocks,
which stocks, for several reasons at the time, came to
be quite adequately, and, indeed, often greedily com-
peted for in the expanding money market of those
days. First, there was the effect of the full con-
fidence, which soon came to be felt by the public, in
the soundness of the principle of these trusts.
Second, the vast and constantly increasing amount
of savings' bank, insurance, and other funds, had
provided a corresponding demand for just such a
class of investments as these stocks then offered.
The reserve funds of the many insurance companies,
for instance, ere the nineteenth century was out, had
reached, in not a few cases, to twenty millions each
and upwards, and in the course of the twentieth to
even a hundred millions each. Lastly, there was
concurrently also, about this time, the continual
100 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
diminution and final extinction of that long-accus-
tomed investment resource, our once great national
debt, whose manner of decline, and whose ultimate
death, I am about to relate. As the rate of interest
on our debt — by a bold and happy stroke, during one
of the recurring intervals of '' cheap money " towards
the end of the nineteenth century — had been success-
fully reduced from three per cent, to two and a half
per cent., so there was the less difficulty in nego-
ciating the Special Trust issues at moderate rates of
interest, these being usually not over three per cent.
How WE EEDUCED THE INTEREST KaTE, AND FINALLY
EXTINGUISHED OUR NATIONAL DeBT.
YeUowly gave us at times his ideas about reducing the interest
of our National Debt, and finally extinguishing the principal. —
Author, chap. i.
Let us glance back for a moment to these two
great events, which formed national eras in their
respective times, and were almost unexpectedly simple
in the means by which they were successively ac-
complished. From the middle of the nineteenth
century, a distinguished minister and premier of
those remote but not yet forgotten times had made
the question of the reduced interest his own; and he
happily survived to see his grand expectation realized.
When seasons of cheap money came round, so as
to send up the price of the old three per cent, consols
substantially above par, which happened, in fact, on
repeated occasions before the actual step of conver-
sion into two and a half per cent, was ventured upon,
there had always seemed to be two great obstacles in
A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE. 101
the way. First, there was the hugeness of the total
to be dealt with ; and, second, the fact that much the
larger part of the amount required a twelve months'
notice to the national creditor. As to the first
obstacle, then, the idea of attacking so great an
amount, if it were to be done in any piecemeal
fashion, appeared all but hopeless of final and com-
plete result ; while, as to the second, however
favourable any present moment of the market might
seem for the projected conversion, who could answer,
in those shifting, unpredictable times, for the monetary
conditions twelve months later ?
The simple course eventually taken, and the easy
success which attended it, showed how needless were
the many fears and hesitations which preceded this
great public measure. For example, instead of the
largeness of the amount being a difficulty, it proved,
as was foreseen by the practical minds consulted, to
be the chief cause of ensuring and facilitating the
operation. The State, in offering to its creditors a
two and a half per cent, stock in exchange for a three
per cent., must offer, of course, the alternative of a
money payment. But any large amount of such
money payments, seeking simultaneously other in-
vestments, must so violently disturb the market,
comparatively limited as it would be in other like
suitable securities, as soon to make such other invest-
ment difficult or impossible on advantageous terms.
And, besides, there was the probable fact that the larger
part of consols' holdings were bound to that particular
security, and would thus be maintained, even under
the proposed reduction of the interest rate.
The other difficulty remained, namely, the practical
102 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
surmounting of the twelve months' notice, so as to
give prompt and simultaneous effect to the whole
operation. Let us consider the way in which this
was successfully accomphshed. The issue of a two
and a half per cent., in simple exchange for a three per
cent., hundred for hundred, was not deemed possible,
or even, perhaps, quite a fair and reasonable offer of
treatment to the public creditor. Accordingly he was
to be met by the concession of a substantial discount
upon the substituted two and a half per cent., but still
a discount, comparatively speaking, so moderate as
to leave an enormous advantage to the State by the
conversion. The temptation of this discount became
the efficient leverage by which the disadvantage of
the twelve months' notice was obviated. The discount
was allowed to those only who decided at once. This
proved a generally successful argument. Indeed,
only a comparatively small amount of money payment
was actually demanded in the entire operation.
There are but a few more words to complete the
account of the final procedure in this business. The
principle adopted was, that, on the one hand, there
should be a uniform two and a half per cent, stock
offered to the public ; and, on the other hand, a stock
of terminable annuities in readiness, from the sale of
which, in amounts as might happen to be required,
the State was to be put in funds to pay off dis-
sentients. The State, in short, offered the former
stock on its own terms, but was compelled, of course,
to accept the terms of buyers for the latter stock. It
was only because the latter stock proved to be very
much the lesser of the two, that the State came off the
decided gainer upon the operation.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 103
Let me now turn to the still more important subject
of the final extinction of our national debt. This
great operation was successfully accomplished by-
using, seemingly, very inadequate means, aided, how-
ever, by steady accumulative action over a long
interval of time. Our story begins a little outside of
its own actual boundaries, and introduces us to the
old interminable questions about the currency. Our
monetary cii'culation, up to nearly the close of the
nineteenth century, was mainly metallic ; and there
was a tacitly understood national monetary policy
in keeping it so, and in preventing any very
general substitution of paper. But the public's
preference for the more handy and convenient paper
was all this time very decided, and all that the public
wanted was but the chance of getting it. The field
was thus a tempting one to poach upon, and it was at
last so seriously invaded by the paper of cheque banks,
and by other issue contrivances, as to threaten the
disappearance of most of the great metallic reserves.
The public, in its readiness for the paper, would accept
even the second class of it, offered by all and sundry
issuers, if the first were not to be had.
The Government at length intervened. It seemed
advisable that the State should supply, to its own
profit as well as the public benefit, a suitable and un-
doubted paper. While free play was to be given to
the public appetite in this direction, the exchanged
specie was all to be held available, until, at any rate,
experience had determined what proportion of it
might be safely dispensed with, and thus turned to
other and profitable account. By a modification of
the postal notes system, an excellent smaller currency
104 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
was gradually brought into extensive domestic use,
and was exchanged for many millions of specie.
Successive portions of this great metallic stock were
afterwards applied to redemption of parts of the
public debt. But a substantial metallic reserve was
still kept on hand, and experience proved that even
five or ten millions, available in this way, were more
effective against crisis than fifty millions scattered
amongst the public. The amounts thus saved were
strictly and steadily applied, on the accumulative
principle, by a commission specially intrusted with
the business, and the funds in hand were solemnly
placed beyond reach of the temptations incident to
any future "First Lord of the Treasury." In this
way, with the aid of repayments at times out of
surplus revenue, the entire debt was finally redeemed
within a century.
State Assistance free to the Poorer Youth.
It was something for the State to be able at last
to boast that there was difficulty to discover anywhere
a poor youth, needing, or willing to accept, help, and
who would thus confer upon it the luxury of helping
one of its sons forward in life's struggle. That con-
dition was indeed substantially attained. But towards
its high attainment a good deal had been done, in
preceding generations, as to the suppression or ex-
tirpation of crime, mendicancy, tramping, gipsying,
and so on, as we shall have occasion to see further
on. The time arrived when the State could not only
give a free education to all its youth, but could help
forward into the successes of their maturer life any
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 105
who were in need. Advances were made, in money
or clothing, as required by the youth on quitting
school. This was at first from funds supplied to the
State's use in this way by the charity organization of
the time. But eventually, when there was a satis-
factory and reliable regularity established in the
final repayments of these advances, the system was
made the subject of a special trust. A great ledger of
the State, in short, was opened for these national
advances ; and when the assisted youth afterwards
repaid his loan, he was awarded a medal which was
often long preserved as an honoured heirloom, even
in the most prosperous families. These repayments,
principal and interest, became at last so regular as
to justify, as I have said, the ajDi^lication of the
special trust system. By charging the borrowers a
a slightly higher interest than was paid upon the
trust stock, the comparatively small loss from the
defaulting, or the exceptionally unlucky, was covered,
and the trust became self-paying. As every honest
or willing youth of either sex could thus always fall
back upon the ways and means to get on in the
world, the whole society moved forward by so much
the quicker and better pace.
Peogress by Speciality of Study.
As subdivision of labour has been so fruitful in the
business field, so did it prove also when increasingly
applied, in those busy times, to other departments of
work, and especially to the great field of science.
But science itself became more and more associated
with ordinary business, the latter, in most cases.
106 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
depending at every step upon scientific attainment
and application. With the increasing crowd of
workers, and the vast and ever-expanding field of
work, no one could hojpe to be of any great service
to the world, or leave his mark behind him, who
aimed to try his hand or his head at many different
things. Those who stuck to some one subject, which,
with its limitation of range, they were able thoroughly
to master, were most likely to rise to the position of
authorities upon such a limited range, and to be
listened to by the rest of the world.
Thus science, when pursued by each of its countless
students, within their respective small enclosures,
but with thorough and continuous study, made col-
lectively a giant progress. As most people began,
about this time, to be content to work in this quiet
but effective way, they became masters and authorities
in their respective s]3ecialities ; and thus the vast
army of workers, each soldier within his own par-
ticular range, advanced the boundaries of science
by ever increasing observation and discovery.
At the close of the nineteenth century, society had
indeed already entered, but only to the mere thres-
hold, of a vast field of progress. There was some
slight foretaste of that progress during the last half
of that century, when, besides the ordinary electric
telegraph, introduced just a little while before, the
spectroscope, the telephone, the microphone, the
photophone, and such-like, came successively crowding
upon the raw and astonished world of that primitive
day, and when electric light was everywhere em-
powering us to turn night into brilliant day. In due
time succeeded the far grander discovery of the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 107
cross-electric, with all its powers and marvels, bring-
ing to science universally a double or treble power
and pace.
Our youths of those days, then, as they passed out
of school or university into the working world, were
usually exhorted to choose early and deliberately, if
they had not already done so, their special field,
whether of business or science, in order that no time
might be needlessly lost, where life was so short, and
where so much must be first done ere each fresh
candidate could aspire to be of any use to the world,
in adding anything to the previous accumulation of
its attainments. All were started in common with
the advantage of a good and respectively suitable
education ; and, as we have seen in the general
State-aid system, no one deserving and willing needed
to want such further material help as the first steps
of his life's career might requii'e. There was thus
before every one a fair start upon a fair field ; and
under all these favouring circumstances, as we have
already said, a very vigorous human race was main-
tained.
Progress Consummation for the Time, in the
Grand Discovery of the Cross-Electric.
The discovery of Cross-Electric power, and next of
the Duplication of the Cross, and finally of the Re-
duplication, mark the successive stages of science
progress, during the busy period embraced by my
retrospect. These grand successive discoveries w^ere
made indeed at wide intervals. The first, that of the
simple Cross-Electric, came comparatively early in
108 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
my history ; the third and last, that greatest of all past
discoveries, that of the Eeduplicatory power, belongs to
the current age, and is still in the recollection of not a
few now alive, who can thus look to times almost, one
could say, of comparative ignorance which preceded
it. Some sanguine minds already indulge the hope
of science's advance into the powers of the Cross-
Triplication, or the Ter-Cross, as it is alternatively
and abbreviatively called ; and there are some few
who talk wildly of even the Quarto-Cross, and such
powers and such range of mental view as pertain, in
the opinion of more sober spirits, only to the super-
human.
But however it may be with that outer ledge of the
progress question, the discovery of the cross-electric,
simple and small as, in a comparative sense, that old
discovery may now appear to us, inaugurated a pro-
gress far outstripping anything previously in human
experience. This great event of its time ojpened to
man a new range of power over the material universe.
We have had occasion already to notice the great ad-
vance it gave to organic chemistry, in hel^Ding us to
produce our food directly in the laboratory, instead
of by the old protracted circuitous process of natural
vital growth, with all its monopolizing requirement
of surface-room on the earth, which could no longer
be spared to it. This cross- electric discovery led us
promptly to that of the Electro-Light speed, a speed
exceeding that of the heretofore amazing speed of
simple light, in the proportion in which the distance
between the crests of the waves or vibrations of light
exceeds that between the atomic points of the compo-
nent ether. Light-speed and Electro-light speed
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 109
passed, or, as it were, leaped, these respective intervals
of space in the same time. We look back, let me
here remark, upon the incredible dulness of the
nineteenth-century mind, which was unable to catch
many a subsequent discovery, although such discovery
rested mainly upon proportions of which the elements
or factors were, in certain instances, already well
ascertained — such as the cases of the comparative
wave dimensions of sound and light, which are long
ago amongst our basal facts for so much of modern
knowledge and discovery; for, on ascertaining, for
instance, electro-light speed, we are able, and at once,
to infer the distance separating the ether points, or
particles ; while that inference, by a further inference,
in curious backward process, gave us the separating
distance between ordinary material atoms, and the
dimensions and mass of these themselves: this latter
very remarkable inference being, however, of the less
consequence at the time, as we had already arrived,
by another and independent process, at the separating
distances, the mass and the form of these elementary
bodies.
By this great discovery of cross-electric speed, we
were enabled to despatch the electro-light motor into
far-off space, to overtake the ordinary light on its
image or picture- carrying mission. It was not, how-
ever, until the further discovery of the Duplication of
the Cross-Electric that we could bring back the over-
taken picture — as, for instance, that of our little earth,
as it was when the light quitted it so many years or
so many ages past. Indeed, the vastly greater speed
thus attained made us at last regard, with something
like contempt, the old ordinary light- speed of about
110 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
one hundred and eighty thousand miles in a second.
But what a grand field, as we may suppose, now
opened upon our ancestors, in bringing back the past
aspects of the world ! And these, as we shall after-
wards see, could be restored by high scientific
manii3ulation, even to the actual life dimensions.
Finally came the discovery of our venerable and
illustrious Black, within, as I have hinted, quite
modern times — the climax discovery of the Eedupli-
cation of the Cross-Electric, by which we have since
been enabled to launch our material bodies into that
ether-filled space, which was previously traversed only
by our minds and imaginations and our vibration
messages. But now, with electro-light speed at loco-
motive command, who or what is to limit om^ future
travel, as to either range or speed ! White already
foresees for us a travel -speed approaching that of
ordinary light. *'Give to us sailors," he says, "the
wide interastral ocean, and who knows what speed
we may fail to work up to in such a free field of open
sea ? Whereas we now only travel to the planets, a
thousand years hence. Green," he would say to me,
*'we shall be voyaging to the very stars, and having
personal acquaintance and handshaking with those
whom as yet we are permitted only to intermessage."
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. Ill
CHAPTEE VI.
A CHAPTER ON SOME EARLY BUT HIGH POLITICAL
CHANGES.
Yellowly gave us many ideas, political and general, as to the
future. — Author, chap. i.
Having briefly sketched, in the preceding chapter,
some chief causes of that remarkable pace of advance
which set in upon our country after the nineteenth
century, it was to have been my -plsiB. to have next
adduced various illustrative instances through each
successive century. But before entering upon that
systematic detail, I propose first to devote one more
chapter to a view of some of the more interesting
points of the general history and progress, more
especially regarding the earlier centuries of my retro-
spect. The events of these earlier times — as, for
instance, those connected with our national political
developments, or those again which had relation to
the cessation of international war, and to the new
world thus opened to international commerce and
socialities — had no small bearing upon our after
history. Let us begin then by a glance backward
at the —
112 A THOUSAND YEABS HENCE.
Political and Constitutional Development, and
THE Commonwealth op England.
Any thoughtful and unbiased observer of our
pohtical tendencies in the nineteenth century could
hardly have avoided the conclusion that the twentieth
and succeeding centuries would see important changes
in the practice at least, if not the theory or external
form, of our Government. To stand still was im-
possible to the increasing pressure of the needs of
our political life ; and to what, therefore, were we
driving ? '' The Crown " had already, in the nine-
teenth century, become " constitutional ; " which meant
that already it could have no will of its own, apart
from that of the people, as indicated by the majorities
of their representative system. Our Upper House
had gone partly on the same road with the Crown,
and might perhaps have as fully traversed the " con-
stitutional" field, but for the saving practice of
incorporating distinguished outside ability into its
hereditary ranks. The Upper House, in this way,
retained more or less of a real political life. Indeed,
when, very early in our retrospect, as we shall
presently see, the ecclesiastical element seceded from
that House, and when, later on, the hereditary
element was suffered to die out, there resulted quite
a renovation of its political strength. But there were
no available parachutes of these kinds to save " the
Crown," which gradually, therefore, dropped out of
practical account, paled from political view, and
finally disappeared from the country's Government.
We are a people peculiarly addicted to political
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 113
ways of our own, and to keeping within our own
accustomed political groove. But although we do
not usually move on by revolutionary bounds, yet,
while keeping within so-called constitutional lines,
we can be really making great political change all
the time. The politico-social surface is apparently
undisturbed from year to year ; but yet the old
monarchical relations are successively bending to the
demands and necessities of an altering and advancing
society. And yet, in the vitality of old forms, our
royal family, even when no longer participant in
practical politics, continued long at the social front
with a routine of national duties. And along with
such traditional royalty were the still interesting
survivals of old historic family life, whose social
consideration was now all the less grudged, when
no longer propped up by hereditary privilege and
power.
Our national political forms, indeed, continued
much as they were before. The actual head of the
Government was still the *' Premier," who governed
mainly through his majority in the ''Lower House."
A change of ministry came by an '' understanding,"
to which both Houses, but especially the " Lower,"
were usually parties, the understanding being, in fact,
in place of the Crown. But we were still, as before,
a constitutional Government. We did not assume
the name of a Republic, that term being foreign to
our political history and associations. We were a
Commonwealth ; and we finally found ourselves simply
the Commonwealth of England.
114 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
The Story as to how War came at last to its End.
As the nineteenth century drew towards its close,
disturbing us with the still unsettled Eastern Question,
succeeding to the terrible Eusso-Turkish conflict of
that time, — and as we could then look back, over
even the brief term of hardly more than quarter of
a century, upon quite a dozen wars of the chief
civilized powers of the day, ourselves by no means
outside of the fray, — it did seem as though war was
fated, not to diminish, but somehow, most grievously,
to increase, along with all the other and better
advance of mankind. It seemed, in short, as though,
in this chequered world of ours, the blessing of the
one kind of advance was ever to be balanced by the
curse of the other. And yet, at that very time of
such despair of the world's future in that particular
direction, we were, quite unawares, wonderfully close
upon causes and events which were to result in the
complete cessation of war, as between, at least, the
great civilized powers of the world, and, in fact, in
making war, in their case, a practical impossibility.
Let us now see how all this came about.
Our national trust for national defence had long
and proverbially been in "England's wooden walls."
This figure of speech was still kept up even after
our war-ships had become iron and steel instead of
wood. Our military force, in those supposed safe
circumstances of our insular position, had been com-
paratively unimportant. Defended by the said wooden
walls, and behind these by our inexhaustible resources
of capital, we deemed ourselves a match for all that
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 115
might come against us. But, in spite of all this
confidence, we might then have taken credit for being,
on the whole, peaceably inclined, and not usually
boastful, either as people or Government, of all the
good and secure things we seemed to be possessed of.
And so our national life might have flowed steadily
and safely on, none outside wishing to disturb us.
But, on the other hand, times and opportunities were
occasionally tempting to the eloquence, penetration,
and patriotic asj^irations of statesmanship. And, after
all, Governments are but the individual men, who,
with all their special merits or infirmities, compose
them.
Political difficulties will arise somehow, even in
spite of every apparent care, and every professed or
expressed wish for the contrary. And so it happened
just about the time I now speak of. It was just after
we had successfully projected, and entered upon the
construction of the Grand Direct and specially officially
used Express railway line to India. The unfriendly
independence, and coldly unyielding character of the
position taken up by allied France and Germany,
with regard to the all-important liberties and privi-
leges of that part of the line which was to traverse
the few miles of the southern corner of the neutral
territory of the old Duchy of Luxemburg, and the
suspicious and annoying, nay even insulting fact,
that these two countries had, in the most amicable
way, as between themselves, united for that very
object, were things which, in the estimation of our
then premier, were not to be passed lightly over
by a great and independent country. Although a
cloud began to settle over markets, through this bold
116 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
and patriotic bearing of our political head, yet the
unmoved chief was quite equal to the occasion ; and
at the annual Guildhall dinner, which happened
opportunely just then, he cheered up and delighted
an enthusiastic audience with the assurance that,
even if war did come, England's great fund of capital
could survive that of any other country, and could
carry us through, not one campaign merely, but, if
necessary, two or even three in succession, to the
utter prostration of any or all opponents. And, indeed,
no doubt was entertained by any reasonable person,
that if England were minded to spend her last shilling
and throw her last man into glorious war, she could
give a good deal of trouble to any opponents. But,
in the present case, there was specially India con-
cerned— India, so all-important, especially in her
future ; the further the future, the greater the present
importance.
Under all these circumstances, a note was forwarded
to the allied opposition, couched in terms of a digni-
fied independence, which was purposely made con-
spicuous, while still formulated under the profoundest
diplomatic courtesies. That style of thing promises, on
the one side, a glorious success, where the other side
may happen, from any cause at the time, to be more
quiet and forbearing ; and had our bold political
adventure thus happily ended, there was doubtless
much fame in store for the courageous premier. But
what if the other side should prove to be imbued like
ourselves with the full idea of a dignified independ-
ence ? This unluckily proved, in the present instance,
to be the case. In fact, to make matters all the
worse, the Franco-German response seemed almost
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 117
the very counterpart of the English note — just as
dignified, just as independent. This, therefore,
already looked serious. But when a second note from
us, not only firm but categorical, was responded to
in the like firm and categorical way, it was seen at
once that war was meant — had doubtless been so
from the first, and had now, in fact, become inevit-
able.
Consternation at once overspread the country, and
markets everywhere collapsed. Within a few days
the two-and-a-half Consols had fallen from ninety-
nine to seventy-nine, fifty thousand mercantile houses
had suspended payment, a million working-men been
thrown out of employment, and countless families
reduced from plenty and comfort to dejprivation and
distress. But no help for it now ; the country must
face its fortunes ; and after the first outburst of
astonishment and despair, it did so with a good heart,
proceeding to set its house in order, buckling to its
new duties, and even taking comfort in the fact that
the multitude of the unem2)loyed was favourable to
the prompt organization of an adequate defensive
force.
The plans and projects of our powerful enemies
were consistent with all the promptitude and war
resources of those times. Word duly reached us that
the combined Franco-German navy was to keep the
English fleet engaged until at least half a million of
well-disciplined soldiers were landed upon our thus
unprotected shores, by help of the countless shipping
and other appliances which the two great continental
Governments were able to summon to their aid for
just the brief interval needed. If victorious upon
118 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
landing, upon which they entirely reckoned, more
invading forces might easily follow through the great
Calais-Dover Tunnel, which great enterprise of that
time had already been nearly a score of years at work.
What matter if the English fleet, in the interval,
annihilated the Franco-German ! The war compensa-
tion from land- subdued England would restore the
loss tenfold.
The venerable field-marshal of those days tore out
his remaining hairs in his utter desperation. He
admitted that the country was entirely unready to
oppose such a force, if the force in question were able
to effect a landing ; and that such force might capture
London, and even overrun the best of the country,
ere there was a chance of our confronting our enemies
on equal terms. But he, at the same time, most
clearly demonstrated, that our three millions of well-
educated youth, with all the advantages of the modern
arms of precision, might, with only three months
military discipline, have made the whole country
impregnable to any possible foe. Three months ! But
the Germans were to be ready in three days !
The Government, perplexed by the rapidity of events,
had invited suggestions from a patriotic people, and
by return of post a thousand letters lay on the desk
of the anxious premier. When morning dawned on
that eventful night, the dead hand was found to have
grasped the five-hundreth letter ; but whether it had
been perused or not, like the four hundred and ninety-
nine opened before it, who could tell ? There was not
the slightest ground to suspect suicide. All parties
agreed in a magnificent funeral to the adventurous
but most patriotic statesman.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 119
The transchannel wires were in unwonted activity
that morning. Some appreciable cordiality of re-
approach from the other side met a prompt recipro-
cation from ours, and that again was succeeded by
still more pronounced expressions. Ere the business
day was over, the reconstituted English ministry
found itself in entire accord and amity with its so
lately expected enemies, to the boundless satisfaction
of the many millions on either side of the question.
But the experience of this great national crisis was
not to be lost upon us. We at once saw and decided
that it must not occur a second time, and our
precautions were as prompt as they were effectual.
In passing all our youth, indiscriminately from
prince to peasant, through a certain military drill, in
order to qualify all, should the necessity arise, for the
defence of their common country, there was never
occasion to interfere with life's ordinary or business
vocations. There was no necessity, even for a single
day, for barrack life, with its deterioriating influence
upon our youth. The drill, begun as part of the
schoolboy's training, was continued as part also of
his after youthful recreation, and it had a further
advantage in imparting an erect and manly bearing
to our entire population.
With this huge available force over the whole
country, the existence of a professional army became
less and less necessary, so that it was gradually
reduced, and finally given up. Our neighbours on
the Continent approved, and soon began, in this
matter, to follow our English example. France
admitted that had she been thus defensively prepared,
the successful German invasion would have been
120 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
impossible; and, to even better purpose and effect,
she further admitted that, had she been thus only
defensively ready, the German war would never have
occurred. When every citizen was a possible soldier,
wielding with full precision the death-dealing modern
arms, how would invasion be possible ?
There were not wanting, indeed, certain lively
regrets at the prosaic prospect thus opened to society's
future by the disappearance of the soldier. And now
that, in our Old England, hunting, shooting, fishing
and such-like were about to be crowded out of the
busy and teeming country, here, alas ! was also the
last possible resource of an independent gentleman,
the professional army, going with the rest ! What on
earth is a gentleman now to do with himself, if his
careful forefathers have provided for him, and he is
himself indisposed to bend his back to the world's
work ? But society contrived by degrees to fill up this
ominous-looking blank, and even to look back upon
the once gentlemanly profession of killing one's fellow-
men as amongst accomplishments no longer desirable.
The twentieth century had not yet rolled past, ere all
prospect of war, as between at least the great civilized
powers of the world, had, by universal admission,
finally disappeared.
An intensity of joy overspread the civilized world,
on fully realizing that international war had in reality
ceased. Amongst the various peoples of that world
of those days, most of whom had by this time
acquired the thorough command of their own destinies,
great international celebrations were inaugurated, and
great schemes in connection with jDeaceful progress
were on all hands projected. The foreign element
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 121
in the human brotherhood, which before had seemed
to sunder mankind, seemed now, on the contrary,
rather the piquant bond of a closer union, Inter-
national fetes, and other occasions of international
meeting and greeting, were everywhere given and
reciprocated.
One of the most striking of these, at this auspicious
time, was between England and America, in the way
of bridging the intermediate Atlantic. The great
ocean was thenceforth to be reduced to a mere ferry,
and the ferry-boats to resemble swift-travelling cities
or districts, whose citizens of passage were to be
hardl}^ conscious en route that they had ever quitted
terra faina. In realizing this idea there was a
memorable race on either side to construct the first
boat, and accomplish the first voyage of this new
international visiting. But ever as the swift messages
to either side told that one of the rivals was in advance
of the other, a fresh relay was put on to restore the
pace, each in this way falling back upon practically
unlimited resource. The vain contest was therefore
changed to an amicable agreement that each should
finish at the same moment, as well as, at one and the
same signal, start upon their respective voyage, each
meeting the other in the mid- Atlantic. Fifty
thousand passengers sailed simultaneously from
either shore, and the accurate precision with which
they met as arranged was not less satisfactory, as a
scientific attainment, than the cordiality of the novel
mid-ocean greeting. But these first boats of the
great Atlantic ferry, which astonished their own
generation, were in turn quite dwarfed by subsequent
achievements of the like kind, when the twenty-first
122 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
century even still further surpassed the twentieth,
than that busy century of comparative progress had
done its predecessor the nineteenth.
An Incident out of Wae- Cessation.
Let me here, in passing, allude to an apparently
trifling incident, which, arising out of the preceding
great change in our military or defence system, led
us eventually into a practice which became a cha-
racteristic national principle. In view of the saving
of other military expense, a system was instituted of
small fees, or payments, to the youth while under
drill. These fees, ere long, were usually credited to
a national insurance fund, by which each contributing
youth could fall back upon a certain provision for
his after necessities or old age. An anticij)atory
suggestion of some fund of this kind had already
been made in the preceding generation, but the plan
had not then been found practicable. On this later
occasion there was entire success ; and the system
proved all the more effective from a habit of generous
concession, on the part of those who did not need the
fund, in favour of those who did.
The Map of Europe after the Nineteenth
Century.
The political geographer of the nineteenth century
could hardly have failed of a curiously busy mind
over apparently impending changes. But actual
events in this respect rather exemplified the proverb
that the unexpected is what always happens. While
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 123
the nineteenth century pointed to Eastern Europe
as then most portentous of change, the striking facts
of the twentieth had rather ranged themselves in the
West.
The East, however, had its share, and the drama
there was opened the earHest of the two, by the
final break down of ''the Sick Man" not very long
after our retrospect opens. The fate of himself and
his Government had been distinctly expedited by
preceding events in Egypt, which had been at least
the means of developing the long-smouldering dis-
content of Mohammedanism with the Turkish Caliph-
ate. Upon the fall of the Turkish power a spiritual
Caliphate was established at Mecca, thus restoring
the religious supremacy of the Arab element. But
by this time the power, learning, and respectability of
Mohammedanism was in rapid transit to India.
We seized a favourable opportunity of ridding our-
selves of the costs and responsibilities of Cj'prus, thus
restoring to us the lasting good-will of Eussia, and
materially increasing our estimation and influence in
the European concert. We did not, of course, return
the island to Turkish misrule, but placed it indepen-
dently under European guarantees. We did practi-
cally the same with Egypt, after subduing the Arabi
rebellion, our disinterestedness, well-nigh unexpected
as it was, commanding the applause of the world.
But not the less was this course for us a wise and
far-seeing policy, as we avoided incorporating with
our empire a country so exposed to other Great
Powers of the world, and where our own protective
insularity was totally lost to us.
We cordially helped Greece to secure, from the
124 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Turkish ruins, all that her race and history could
claim, and to start afresh upon a career of national
greatness, denied to her heretofore in her constrained
narrow quarters. Constantinople, by the mutual
jealousies of Europe, was safeguarded into a free
city, which, with an adequate territorial surround-
ing, was once more a conspicuous object and a busy
centre of the world.
The defunct empire had yet many other pickings
in its wake. Not the least interesting of restitutional
claims was that of the Jew for his ancient heritage.
The movement was so considerable and so effective,
promoted as it was alike by the cordial good-will in
general as by the occasional antipathies of his whole
world acquaintanceship, and not least by the aroused
ambition and boundless resources of the race, as at
length to remove the Syrian difficulty at least from
the heritage of problems which Turkey's break up had
left for Europe.
Still more interesting and even less expected was
the bearing of the case on the restoration of Poland,
that happy national rectification and restitution
which honoured the opening twentieth century.
This was not, however, in fulfilment of the old ditty
that when certain parties fall out, certain others come
by their due, although that particular turn of the
matter had once seemed not unlikely some short
time before. The causes at work were more credit-
able to the improving national sentiment of the time,
which could appreciate the national wrongs of the
case, as well as the doubtful advantage to any nation
of really alien elements coercively retained. Possibly
these higher arguments might have been less effec-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 125
tual, but for a solidly supplementary help arising out
of the aforesaid Eastern unsettlement. Compensa-
tions elsewhere were thus provided for two of the
parties thus restitutionally disposed, while that of
the third, Germany, was happily forthcoming else-
where, as we shall presently have occasion to see.
At all events, a reconstituted Poland was one of the
bright and happy features of the twentieth century.
The ''Italia Irridenta " question received also its
final and happy solution about the same time and
from like auspicious considerations.
We are already passed from Eastern to Western
questions, and have come midway upon that of
Poland, just narrated. There are more to follow as
we further pursue the sun. Slight or small causes are
proverbially productive of grand events. But pre-
sumably there is a helping and according prepara-
tion, as when the smallest spark will blow up a
magazine, or a pistol-shot dislodge a mas^ of alpine
rock ; or when, as actually happened, an abstract
discussion, at an international gathering in Belgium,
on the advantages of a great independent, as com-
pared with a small and dependent nationality, in the
progress and destinies of civilized and enlightened
peoples, led eventually to that country, by mutual
accord, merging into France. The French Eepublic
had by this time passed safely, and with fair steadi-
ness in its trying circumstances, into the second
generation, approving itself worthy of life by the
moderation and forbearance of its course, especially
towards the other and smaller political sections,
which, if not altogether reconciled to the republic,
had yet greater antipathies to each other.
126 A THOUSAND YEABS HENCE.
This example had infectious effect upon Holland.
The phlegmatic but business Hollander was not, how-
ever, credited with being moved solely by an abstract
idea, or even by the more concrete attraction of
bringing happily once more together the two sections
of the great old German race. He had also a bright
restoration vision of '*the buried cities of the Zuyder
Zee," and of other improvements and advantages of
all kinds, which the power and capital of a great
empire at his back might bring to his country.
England, from old jDolitical association and relation-
ship, took quite a parental lead in both of these high
international arrangements. Nor did her after ex-
perience fail to confirm her expectation, that the best
way to be rid of the constant anxieties and responsi-
bilities about adjacent small states was to have none
of them in existence. Her cordial response on these
interesting occasions gave her an influence and
prestige which she willingly turned to account for the
general harmony and good-will so auspicious of these
times and doings.
Thus it was mainly at her instance that France,
upon the union with Belgium, solemnly gave up all
claim for the restoration of her old German conquest,
Alsace-Lorraine. Whereupon Germany, not to be
outdone in these steps of international amenity,
forthwith dismissed one-half of her army. This
pleasant tide in the affairs of men did not stop
here. When the Dutch bride was ready to pass to
the arms of her husband, the marriage present of
the island of Heligoland, with which we completed
the attractions of her trousseau, was not more a
gracious parental attention to our late ward, than
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 127
a considerate and timely act towards Germany, and
one which she accepted in the best spirit.
There is but one other incident to allude to in these
changes of the European map. AVhen that federal
union between Spain and Portugal, so long looked
and hoped for, as the preliminary to a complete
political fusion, at length took place, and Spain was
thus enabled to offer to us, with due consent of its
people, the island of Madeira for her famous Gibraltar,
an offer which we cordially accepted, the now united
and completely self-possessed Peninsular State at
once entered the European concert as a seventh
Great Power, and in an age of general progress was
soon able to show her grand capabilities and to
restore the glories of the past. Nor were our new
fellow-citizens of the genial little Atlantic island
disappointed of the expected advantages of their
change, when British enterprise had been fully
directed to the new and cherished acquisition, and
Madeira had become j)ractically a sort of suburban
sanitarium, for sanitary and holiday change, to the
vast and busy city England,
128 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
CHAPTEK VII.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. WHAT COULD STILL BE
DONE WITHIN ITS SMALL REMAINDER.
If our leading classes would still lead, they must not grudge
the disturbance of progress. — Author, chap. i.
My retrospect, as I have repeatedly had occasion to
say, opens towards the close of this nineteenth
century. But although something short of a score
of years only remained of that century, we were able
to show some work of progress, for even so brief an
interval. There was, indeed, a fairly creditable ad-
vance, for that far-back day, alike scientific and
general. But as regards scientific progress, which is
doubtless the great feature of my theme, my intention
is to review it by itself, after we have passed through
the first half of the thousand years' retrospect, in
its other or ordinary progress. After the first five
centuries, as I have already said, the world had
emerged from its old limitations of the international
divisions of mankind, and had entered upon the ad-
vanced position of one homogeneous society, speaking
everywhere one and the same language. Meanwhile,
until we reach that era, we shall take the social and
material progress century by century, selecting, as
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 129
we pass along, such instances of change and progress
as may form our best illustration. Our opening case
is a slight, but by no means an unillustrative incident.
It relates —
What befell Court Dress.
The late mitigation in court dress was not at all to my
wife's mind. — Author, chap. i.
There could be no doubt that court dress was not
originally intended to be laughed at. That is a con-
sideration always to be kept in view. From the
sublime to the ridiculous is said to be only a step.
But with court dress it might have happened that,
by a wrong turn or the wrong door, the interval of
a step might have been reduced even to an inch of
protecting deal. The thing, in fact, did happen, and
not without consequences ; for when the Eight Honour-
able the Lord Vicomte Vrayshaum-Peenyong (the
family came over with the Conqueror) had somehow
got adrift during a grand reception, and instead of
reaching the gracious presence of bis sovereign, had
emerged upon a hilarious crowd behind, and been
taken for a merry-andrew, and dealt with accordingly,
there came at last a change to court dress. But still
it was not without protracted opposition, sustained,
as was urged for it, on the ground of principle, that
an understanding was finally reached, that court dress
should always be something in good taste.
Our Most Exemplary Episcopate.
My next illustration is of wider and more edifying
import. It concerned a result by no means unex-
K
130 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
pected about this time; but the particular way in
which it came about was, perhajDS, just at the
moment, as unlooked for as it was creditable to the
position and character of those who took part in it.
The increasingly abnormal character of the eccle-
siastical element that still lingered in our Parliament
had become already sufficiently obvious ; but between
that stage and the semi-revolation of any forcible
expulsion, there might have been still no small in-
terval, had it not been for a timely effort of dis-
interested magnanimity. There had been a fairly
maintained secret in the business ; so that when the
venerable and large-minded primate of that day rose
in his place in the House of Lords, surrounded, as
pre-arranged, by the full episcopal bench, and claimed
attention to a most important statement, neither the
House within nor the public without quite exactly
anticipated the edifying and most memorable incident
that followed.
The distinguished primate opened his brief but
emphatic address by the remark that the spirit of
the times had changed in a manner and in a direction
which the Church could not but be bound to notice,
and duly to consider, as to how it affected hcT useful-
ness for her own proper and great mission. Would
that usefulness be greatest in resisting the modern
spirit with its many claims, or in frankly acknowledg-
ing and yielding to it ? The heads of the Church
had well considered their problem, and the solution
to which it had brought them. The Church, as it
now stood, was helped — or, as he might alternatively
put it, was encumbered — by three orders of special
privilege, namely, the pecuniary, the ecclesiastical.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 131
and the political. The two first he would remit to
the consideration of his successors ; but certainly the
time had come for the Church to be rid of the last.
The primate then went on to intimate that both him-
self and the other Church dignitaries present would
now quit the august assemblage before them never to
re-enter it. And then and there, in the silence of the
profoundest sensation, he made good his words by
himself retiring from the House, followed by the whole
episcoj^al bench.
By this bold and high-minded, but also politic
course, our beloved Church enormously advanced her
interests, and her influence with the whole people —
so much so, indeed, as to materially help her, further
on, to enter successfully upon another and still greater
step in her history, to which I shall have occasion
presently to allude. I must not, however, omit the
concluding incident of the memorable event above
described. In an after address to the Church, the
primate most heartily congratulated her on her now
spiritually freed and improved condition. She could
now at last, and, as he warmly added, only now, with
a perfectly clear conscience, continue to rebuke that
corrupt old Church from which, centuries ago, they
had been compelled wholly to disassociate themselves,
for her selfish longings after her lost temporal power
— longings which happily still continued as vain and
unattainable as they were selfish and profane.
132 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Special Trusts : The Great Scheme of a
Ee SANITATED LoNDON.
Yellowly would express ' surprise that the State had hitherto
done so little to turn this sure recuperative principle to the
public good. During any tliirty years of this century the com-
plete sanitary reconstruction of London might have been
accomplished free of ultimate cost. — Author, chap. i.
"When one looks back upon smoky, dingy, old
London, as it existed prior to the grand resanitation,
or, more properly, the sanitary reconstruction, so
successfully entered upon before the close of this
century, and realizes once more not only its extir-
pated fever dens, and its ejected gas and sewage-
poisoned soil, but all the obstruction of its narrow,
tortuous, and dark ways, in the very busiest parts
of the city, it does seem a marvel how our ancestors
bore with it all so long. Habit is indeed a wonderful
reconciler ; but none the less could the citizens appre-
ciate the paradise into which they emerged, through
the radically reconstructive changes I am about to
record. Nor were we one moment too early in the
field, when we began our great work ; for the spirit
of progress and improvement of the time was already
seriously expending itself upon the old and utterly
unsuitable lines of the original city. Every year of
such work only increased, of course, the difficulties
of a general undoing ; for an undoing, root and branch,
was finally decided upon as entirely indispensable.
No doubt the great Paris reconstruction, which had
been continuously at work for more than a generation-
before we began in earnest with London, had stimu-
lated us by its example. In the emulative race thati
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 133
afterwards arose between these two greatest cities of
the world, it seemed at first generally sujDposed that
London, being so much later in the reconstructive
field, could hardly hope to overtake her great rival,
and would thus remain permanently second in this
resanitation and reconstruction race. But this sur-
mise proved altogether erroneous. We began, indeed,
comparatively late, but under enormous comparative
advantages, arising out of a wider experience, and
more accurate idea of all the wants of the case, as
well as a more comprehensive and systematic plan,
and greater pecuniary resource, and a more advanced
art and science, to give effect to the whole project.
Our course was thus marked, not only by greater
regularity and rapidity, but by far more variety and
excellence of adaptation to the needs alike of the
present and of the impending far greater future. In
nothing were our later superiorities more obvious
than, for instance, in the superseding, to a large
extent, of the huge cumbrous masonry of stone and
bricks and mortar — a style of the past for which we
had no longer either room or patience, in the busy
and crowded conditions into which our national life
was entering. And in other ways, as we shall now
see, we went radically to work, keeping always steadily
in view, as I have said, the larger wants of our ex-
panding future.
Eeception of the Project.
When the minister of the day first announced his
grand project, it was curious to mark the earlier
effects upon his audience, alike within and without
134 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Parliament. After seeming to be momentarily stunned
by the unprecedented boldness and magnitude of the
scheme, Parliament and the country gave an unmis-
takable response in its support. The obviously
resolute purpose of the Government had the very best
effect. They had declared emphatically, that all the
patchings of past years, whether by Boards of Works
or various private enterprises, were but child's play
with the large evils that confronted them, and that
only increased year by year, and day by day. In
the highest interests of society, and even in the purely
economic interests of the case, and as a question of
mere commercial profit and loss, they must go
forward to a radical and comprehensive cure.
The Opposition.
The ojDposition, although happily in a decided
minority, was not the less determined. It was led,
in the Commons, by Sir Peter Periwig, one of the
City members, and head of the old respected and
wealthy City house of Peter Periwig & Co. Sir Peter
himself, now well up in years, was one of the " Old
Whigs." But although he still gloried in what those,
in their day, had done for the country, he would have
no hand in the further and upsetting schemes, as he
described them, of radicals and revolutionaries. The
country, he would say, needed rest and quiet. The
modern pace was altogether too fast ; and now it was
proposed that the Government themselves should, in
effect, turn builders and speculators; and thus open
up a further and endless scene of dust and noise and
national disturbance. He would forbid, deny, arrest
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 135
all that sort of thing upon principle. Principle,
sacred principle, he would say, should always and
everywhere prevail, no matter at what cost, negative
or positive. Some years later, as the venerable City
member drew near his end, not without self-satis-
faction at having done his duty, particularly in his
unremitting efforts to stem the noxious disturbance of
so-called modern progress, a friend brought him word
of the great apparent success, in spite of all his
forebodings, of the grand London Sanitation Scheme.
But Sir Peter could only turn his head to the wall,
and groan out, with his expiring breath, " Nothing
but princijDle ! "
Mode of the Work as to Finance.
In giving some particulars of this great work, let
me first touch uj)on its financial method. Of course
the main supporting pillar of the whole project was
the expectation that time only was needed to recoup
all cost, through the natural advance of value in the
city's real estate — '' the unearned increment of value,"
as it used to be called. The Government and the
country had at length satisfied themselves of the
solid reality of this prospect, and the final result did
not at all belie their full expectation. A competent
Commission, or Trust, having been appointed with full
powers to act wherever and whenever required, and
with due exhortation to lose no more valuable time,
the business was at once entered upon.
One of the earliest incidents of the case, after the
public announcement, and one that was hardly ex-
pected by those who looked mostly to costs and
136 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
difficulties, was an immediate general advance,
amounting to about ten per cent., in the value of all
metropolitan property. This was caused, so far as
regarded those outside areas which were inferred to
lie beyond range of the proposed sanitary reconstruc-
tion, by the improved prosj)ects gratuitously falling to
their lot through the renovation of the more central
areas. But so far as regarded those doomed areas
themselves, the said advance in value was caused by
the confident feeling that all parties would be dealt
with in a liberal spirit, in whatever way the trust
decided to proceed. The trust decided to recognize,
and support as a basis, this ten per cent, advance.
The value, just prior to announcement of the project,
was taken as accurately as might be, and ten per cent,
was added to it, in consideration of any possible
discount at first in the market value of the trust-
stock issues, and also on the general consideration of
disturbance.
The trust, then, paid its way by the issue of stock
as required. This stock was always readily floated at
the moderate interest of three per cent. The national
consols were, by this time, as we have said, a two-and-
a-half-per-cent. stock, so that this trust stock, although
occasionally at a slight discount at first upon any
great pressure of sales, rose eventually to a sub-
stantial premium. All pro^Drietors were exhorted
rather to hold to their properties than sell them to
the trust. They would thus co-operate with the trust
in the resanitation, and would be liberally assisted in
so doing by pecuniary advance, as required, in the
form of stock from the trust. In those other cases
where the parties preferred to sell, or where they
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 137
were swallowed up in the grand new alignments, the
trust bought them out upon the terms above stated.
All such purchases, with the various reconstructions
raised upon them, were held by the trust, until the
price obtainable repaid all costs. They were usually
leased meanwhile for long terms, with option of pur-
chase to lessee at the required amount — a mode which
mostly led, comparatively early, to a final settlement
in the way intended.
An Episode of the Project.
We halt a moment to glance at a rather striking
episode of the business. The original estimate that
about one-third of a century would accomplish all this
reimbursement seemed in fair way of j)roving correct,
had it not been that an additional object had come
into view on the road, so as to protract further the
final settlement. This was no less than the proposed
concurrent extinction of the large city debt, contracted
mainly by the preceding Board of Works. Indeed,
the municipal corporation — now a large and important
body, having jurisdiction over the entire metropolis —
impressed, through the approaching evident success
of the trust, with the magical efi'ect of mere lapse of
time, had early put in a word for itself and its many
expenses. The hojDe of being grafted on, in some
permanent way, to even some small fragment of the
trust, was enough, for the moment, to arouse visions
of boundless and yet costless hospitalities. The
Government, however, answering for the trust in this
particular contingency, firmly, and even sternly, re-
pelled all wooing of favour in that direction. But
138 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
the other consideration appeared more worthy and
more reasonable ; and thus it came about, that the
great resanitation project not only cleared its own cost,
but by a further protraction of the trust, which
carried it far into the twentieth century, it extinguished
also the considerable antecedent debt of the city.
General Plan of the Work.
Leaving now the modes of finance, let us turn to
the other modes of our great work. The trust en-
couraged originality of idea, and both invited and
rewarded new suggestion on every hand, as was only
fitting, in an era of quite new conditions, which it
was itself busily opening. Amongst the very first
questions encountered was that of the new founda-
tion ; and ha^Dpily it was here decided to eject entirely
the old and fetid soil, and reconstruct the city over a
clear and roomy subterranean, where all the advan-
cing art or science of the future, in lighting, sewerage,
water- suj)ply, and applied energy in general, might be
accommodated with full and undisturbed, as well as
undisturbing, play. Getting thus healthfully rid of
the whole poisoned old subsoil was further convenient
in placing the central city of the future upon one
level. The lofty and spacious subterranean, which
was quite a feature of the new plans, and became a
chief advantage and facility of after city life and
business, was due to a practical consideration that,
however cramped we might be for side room, there
was unlimited space at disposal both beneath towards
the earth's centre and above towards the heavens.
All this great mass of ejected soil proved a con-
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 139
venient supply for another great work of that time,
namely, the completing southern embankment and
continuation to the lower Thames, a project which
was also transformed into a like self- defraying trust.
I may here further mention, that the latter trust
developed, later on, into that far grander embankment
and reclamation of the Thames' mouth, by which, as
I have already said, through protraction of the trust
into the succeeding century, hundreds of square miles
were successfully added to the national territory. Not
the least useful or enjoyable consequence of this grea,t
project was the bold and happy idea, so successfully
realized, of diverting the river, by short direct cut, to
Blackwall, instead of its old roundabout by Greenwich.
The emptied river-bed, over the great space thus
acquired, supplied a valley of health, recreation, and
beauty to succeeding generations, and secured a
blessing from millions of nursemaids and hundreds
of millions of happy juveniles for centuries after.
Some Chief Features.
Some of the more important features of our re-
sanitated London may be here referred to. If the
changes seemed, in some instances, extreme at the
time, they were always afterwards justified by the ex-
panding wants of the future. We reversed, of course,
that old order of things, by which our streets became
narrower and more twisted as we approached the
central and more crowded parts of the city. The
streets there became, indeed, of quite unprecedented
width. But there was no great loss in that way after
all, owing to the unusual height we could now give to
140 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
the buildings, whose loftiest accommodations were
easily and promj^tly reached by perpetually acting
lifts, and whose smokeless roofs were eventually walks
and gardens, which added a great resource of health
and attraction to future metropolitan life.
Of course, too, in these days of science progress, we
were done with the smoke nuisance. Lighting by
electricity, and heating by various other than the old
coal-smoking ways, had already made such progress,
at the time we are now dealing with, as to warrant
the trust to altogether proscribe smoke and smoke
chimneys to the renovated city. Consequently new
London arose entirely smokeless.
The light terrace structure, which surmounted a
lofty ground floor of warehouses, factories, or shops
by a walk for foot passengers, led eventually to much
novel change and improvement. The streets were
bridged over at intervals, in order to make these
upper footways continuous and universal; and by
this resource for pedestrians, street accidents, pre-
viously of alarming frequency, became wholly things of
the past. The city, in fact, had now settled itself into
three tiers of business life ; first, the subterranean,
where, as we saw, the great battle of the wants,
conveniences, and necessities of the society overhead
went on, and where also various merchandise reposed
in such spaces as could be spared fi-om the j)ressure
of other and prior demands ; second, the ground floor,
where the productive and the wholesale, together with
all the vehicular traffic went on ; and, lastly, the
upper level of the first floor, devoted to foot pas-
sengers, and to all the retail shopping and general
locomotive life of the pedestrian public.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 141
Again, the locomotive system for passengers must
needs follow its customers from the underground to
the upper ground, to which, as regarded railway
conveyance, they mostly now confined themselves.
This was so far foreseen from the first, in the arrange-
ments made for an elevation- railway system, which
crept in very quietly behind the grand fronts, and
within the huge blocks of the new city. Here count-
less trains, running over noiseless rails, long provided
for our locomotive wants, until, in after centuries,
crowded off the surface into the roomier areas of the
atmosphere above, to which our travelling has since
been restricted.
No feature of reconstructed London was more of a
surprise upon the old stereotyped building idea than
that of the rapidity of the reconstruction. Our ideas,
in regard to the art of building, under the new oppor-
tunities and circumstances now presented, had com-
pletely changed, alike as to the space allowed, and the
time sacrificed, to building. The old leisurely ways,
over huge masses of damp stone or other masonry,
had been to a large extent exchanged for light but
strong and, indeed, practically everlasting structures
of steel and tiles and glass, which were put together
with unprecedented cheapness, precision, and de-
spatch. One of the new streets, in the earlier years
of the reconstruction, had become famous for the
unprecedented fact of its having been commenced and
completed all within a single week. This was the
triumph of a supreme effort of its time. But even
this wonder of its day was destined to be easily
surpassed by more practised skill, and still more
precisely adapted masonry, farther on. Indeed the
142 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
art or science of dwelling-bouse, warehouse, or factory
structure had quickly passed out of all its old dilatory,
and other variously backward and costly ways. That
once insoluble old question of healthily and comfort-
ably housing " the poorer classes " — if indeed we could
so continue to speak of the well-off masses of the
people of the twentieth century — was thenceforward a
thing to be accomplished almost at once, as we may
presently have occasion to see, and that not by mere
thousands of dwellings at a time, but by millions, as
required under the improving dispensations of those
days.
Another striking feature of change and improve-
ment, which afterwards left its mark largely alike
over town and country, was that of the light glass
roof, thrown over our streets, by way of protection
from the chill air and weeping skies of our Old Eng-
land climate. This great step in the direction of
business convenience, as w^ell as social comfort and
resource, was assisted by other concurrent circum-
stances. For example, we had already begun to
dispense with the cumbrous and costly live quadruped
to help our locomotion, and to substitute for it the more
cleanly and manageable life-electric. Consequently,
unlike Paddy and his pig of old, in common occupa-
tion of the home, we had no quadrupedal company
even beneath the ampler area of our new glassy sky,
and the feature of stables, as well as street manure,
had alike vanished. The rapid substitution of elec-
tricity for steam, in our locomotive and other uses,
was further in the same acceptably cleanly direction ;
and not less marked in the same way was our chemical
progress, which was already dealing, j)romptly and
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 143
innoxiously, with slops, sewage, and refuse generally,
as now amongst even the profit -making, as well as the
scientific and respectable, vocations of an advanced
society. But all this cosy, comfort-making system
did not distract attention from adequate ventilation
everywhere. The trust commission had made a
point of stimulating to the utmost all novelty,
ingenuity, and originality of adaptation ; but none
the less was a vigilant general supervision exercised,
in view of the fact, that the great aim and end of the
trust was sanitation.
There are still some interesting points, in looking
back upon this great work — great, at least, for its
day, even although we, from the grand modern plat-
form, may think to look down upon it as amongst the
smaller matters. A lofty and magnificent arcade arose
in our city centre, within whose amjDle area all the
chief branches of public and ordinary business, the
public offices, the banks, the exchange, and the stock
exchange, and the railways, could conveniently enter
an appearance. When most of these were afterwards
crowded out, they took refuge in more roomy quarters,
as we shall see in our succeeding section, in treating
of the feature of the concentration of the public
offices. In these and other conveniences of progress,
we were not, as I have ah-eady hinted, a day too soon
in the vigorous rivalry of the international race. Our
great rival, Paris, in particular, was ever upon our
heels, and never closer than in the leaps and bounds
into extension and wealth which followed upon her
great ocean-canal construction, direct through the
capital, from the Northern Channel to the Mediter-
ranean. We were indeed later, but with quite equal
144 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
effect, with our own great ocean cut, which, quitting
the embanked and deepened Thames at lower London,
passed off southwards direct to the open sea, thus
leaving the Calais-Dover narrows, and their vicinities
to north and south, to the reclamation projects of
those times, which eventually restored that terra
fir ma between us and continental Europe, which
geologists before assured us had been filched from
us and our neighbours by our once restless and in-
vading but now subdued old enemy, the sea.
Concentration of the Public Offices.
In exact reversal of the old practice of the greatest possible
scattering of the public offices and institutions. — Author,
chap. i.
Many considerations were conjoined in demanding
the concentration of the public offices in some one
suitable situation, and their removal from the denser
parts of city life. Not the least of these considerations
was the possibility thereby, through swift and in-
cessant railway connection, of bringing every citizen
practically nearer to each and all the offices, than
was possible under the old scattering system, by
which every public office seemed, as though by natm'al
electric repulsion, to keep as inconveniently far from
its fellows as possible. But there would have been
no chance whatever for so novel and distm'bing an
idea to dislodge us from the habitual old groove, had
it not been for the arousing effects of the unavoidable
demolition of most of our public offices, in common
with the countless other structures which collapsed
under the great resanitation procedure. When the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 145
affirmative decision as to this concentration system
was finally taken, there was happily space sufficient
still available in the convenient vicinity of London.
There, then, in due time, arose the grandest and
most multifarious edifice of its day, and perhaps of
any time preceding ; for in this particular case, as in
that of reconstructed London in general, care was
taken that the measure of the wants in office accom-
modations should be rather that of the expanding
futm'e than of the limited present. The ground floor
embraced postal and telegraph, customs and taxes,
police and justice, and those general governmental
departments to which the public have daily to resort.
The floors above were reserved for the departments of
thought, study, and general work. There, accordingly,
was all the afterwork of the offices below ; there also
sat our Parliament, revelling in the roomy fresh-aired
suitabilities of the new quarters ; and there, too, was
collected and ingeniously arranged the contents of
our comprehensive British Museum, presented upon
one spacious floor level, and magnificently surmounted
and lighted by the grandest dome in the world.
This novel structure was also the successful result
of a special trust, created after that way of those
times, by which so many great works, not perhaps
otherwise to be attempted, were promptly and easily
accomplished. The costs, in this particular case,
were recouped chiefly from fines, fees, and rents levied
on the various interests and parties supplied or
benefited, as well as from the realizations from the
superseded old sites. But it was still possible to
spare not a few of these latter as spaces permanently
open for the public. On finally winding up this
148 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
remarkable trust the State was able to reserve the
vast centre of the ground floor, which eventually
became, as was foreseen and intended, the active
focus of the commerce and finance, alike of cax)ital
and provinces, and indeed of the whole commercial
world ; and whose rentals, estimated by the square
inch of such almost priceless space, yielded a mag-
nificent and ever-increasing endowment for science.
Other Specml Trusts — The National Drama.
Reed thought that the State might intervene to rescue and
maintain the drama. — Author, chap. i.
A general feeling prevailed about this time that the
drama had not had due justice amongst us, and that
in some way of public support something effective
should be done in order to give it the high and pro-
minent place which it should hold as being really by
far the most effective agent, alike for the instruction,
the indispensable recreation, and the mere pastime
amusement of the people. The State, therefore,
decided to intervene, and to do all that seemed neces-
sary for the cause by means and pecuniary aid of a
special trust. Nothing was spared towards having
everything of the best and most suitable, from the
noble material edifice which duly arose in the new
cause, to all those social and moral considerations
and arrangements which were to insure the desired
respectability of the entire dramatic connection.
Towards this important step of dramatic progress
there had been some previous successful effort, chiefly
in the establishment of schools for dramatic educa-
tion, and thus great numbers of both sexes had taken
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE, 147
an interest in dramatic training, as the best means
of modulating voice and action into their most
effective display. This commencing intervention was
to be limited to one great experiment for the
metropolis, in the expectation that private enterprise
would follow the example elsewhere.
All this dramatic enterprise was not immediately,
although it was eventually, successful ; and thus this
trust, by itself, might have pecuniarily failed, but for
the averaging system which was applied to such lesser
or more precarious trusts. Either several such trusts,
of varying financial prospects, were bound financially
together, so as to afford an improved chance for the
eventual solvency of the whole, or, in the last resort,
any lingering case might be tacked on, as a second
charge, to some other of surer prospects, as was so
successfully done with the old London municipality
debt.
Theatrical exhibitions never inconsistent with good
taste, and a theatrical troupe every individual of
which was a respectable member of society, and every-
where acknowledged and received as such — no less
than all this was the aim and object of this novel
trial of a trust. The scale of things in all the ap-
pointments of this national recreative department
was commensurate alike with a due sense of the
importance of the object, and of the possible mag-
nitude of the audiences to be afterwards dealt with.
We owed much of subsequent dramatic progress to
the excellent influences thus brought to bear upon
dramatic life. Acting became even a favourite re-
creation of the young of both sexes, and indeed more
or less of a disciplinary educational training. The
148 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
timidity and diffidence of the beginner was helped in
a curious and amusing way by the scientific perfecting
of the compound-reflector principle. A lifelike re-
flection of the actor was thus projected upon the
stage, while he himself, in all the seclusion his
modesty demanded, and with the prompter con-
veniently at his ear, executed his dramatic part.
This dramatic trust had selected for its grand edifice
a site adjacent to that of the great offices concentra-
tion just alluded to. As other institutions followed
this example, including, in particular, the chief
scientific societies, this now classic area became by
degrees the vast and ever-expanding centre of a com-
prehensive public life. The theatrical accommoda-
tions were of necessity extended at intervals in
subsequent times, to meet the increasing audiences ;
and accoustic and microphonic science maintained a
fair concmTent iDace in this everlasting advance from
the smaller to the greater. But with great areas to
be dealt with, there was a tendency rather towards
scenic and pantomimic representation. This was
entirely to the taste of the juvenile world, who, as
ever, the chief audience, had their own rights in the
case, and doubtless got them attended to.
In the free universality of dramatic range the stage
could take an educational and scientific direction. Thus
countless school-youth were fascinated by the vivid
drama of the earth's geological development, or of
the genesis of our solar system, presented in accord-
ance with the latest scientific inferences and dis-
coveries. As the stately solemnity of the panoramic
march progressed, accompanied usually by suitable
strains of music, the great clock of time was ever an
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 149
•essential part of the scene, his seconds thousands,
or his minutes miUions of years. In the astronomic
develo|)ment, the vast nebular mass was dealt with,
and its transformations followed into a central
luminary with all his planetary surrounding. The
most interesting and exciting drama w^as wont to be
the geologico-biologic progress of the earth, culmi-
nating in the appearance of man upon the scene.
The audience were wont to be artistically wound up
to the highest pitch of expectation as the climax
approached when the noble or ignoble savage, but
yet unmistakably a man, first leaps upon the stage
from his tree, his cave, or his wigwam. But the edge
of romance was afterwards sadly turned when the
''missing links," one after the other, were restored:,
and when at length, a beetle-browed, prognathous,
long- armed, dubiously footed, and black and hairy
ancestor scowled antipathy and defiance at his hardly
recognizable descendants. The true, says science, is
happily often, but not always, the beautiful.
Housekeeping Economy for the Masses — Mechanics'
Hotels.
To secure twice tlie comfort at half the cost of ]3revious
opportunities and experiences. — Authoe, chap. i.
Ere the nineteenth century had closed, it witnessed
the successful inauguration of a cheap, convenient,
and promptly ready mode of living, suited to the
narrow circumstances and small means of great
numbers of the people, and not less promotive of
social enjoyments. This was the hotel system of
living, and particularly in the extension of its adapta-
150 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
tion to the mass of the poi^ulation. This system
previously had been much more developed in America
and elsewhere than with ourselves ; but we eventuall}^
carried it out with a comprehensive application sur-
passing all precedent, and we thus solved, more
effectually than anjwhere else, the previously hard
and protracted problem of the sufficient and healthful
housing of our poorer population, at expenses still
completely within even their limited means. Our
special trust system was not needed in this business,
extensive and national as it was, because the profits
of the enterprise were sufficiently obvious and at-
tractive. After some experience in this right direction,
it was soon seen that there was more economy of
management, and readier adaptation to wants, than
could have been expected in such an application of
the trust system.
One point chiefly to be noticed in this system was
the custom, which eventually became general, of the
hotel occupants purchasing respectively the small
but separate houses they occupied in the common
edifice, and effecting this object by means of regular
small payments spread conveniently over a few years.
The additional sum required weekly of the tenant for
the ultimate redemption of his house was even more
than saved by the economies of the system. Ere
very long the tenants found themselves transformed
into owners, and such great hotels — edifices of unsur-
passed grandeur they became — entirely their own
IDroperty.
These great and convenient combinations of houses
tookthe name of Mechanics' Hotels ; and the mechanics'
hotels of the twentieth century, like the mechanics'
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 151
institutes of the century before, took their high status
as well as their important social position. With the
aids of experience and good taste, they became as
elegant as they were comfortable. Each hotel had
usually one or more great halls of common associa-
tion; and these, comfortably warmed and brightly
lighted, were the cheerful resom'ce of all the com-
pany, and usually the scene of much rivalry of varied
programme for the evening's recreation. We have
already noticed the fact of the old iDublic-house, under
its coarse and ungainly aspect of the nineteenth
century, having virtually disappeared from our social
life in the course of the twentieth. This was chiefly
due to the universal rise of these mechanics' hotels,
whose bright and home-surrounded halls proved far
the more attractive resort for the tired, and rest and
recreation-seeking worker.
When some experience and success had smoothed
the general way, and more especially the financial
way, with this co-operative houses' system, the in-
tending tenants were able, with much comparative
advantage, to deal directly with the builder or the
capitalist. Indeed, it became no uncommon thing
for some hundreds or even thousands of families, after
agreeing amongst themselves for a co-operation of
this kind, to make terms direct with the builder, and,
in those prompt times, to be comfortably housed in
their completed edifice, all within a few weeks of the
first step in the cause. Thus, under the economies
of this system, amounts of daily or weekly earning,
previously quite inadequate to support healthful life,
were now even more than sufficient ; and society was
thus permanently secured against the difficulties and
152 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
distress proverbially insei^arable from its masses.
Society had now, indeed, at last, begun effectively its
march towards that enviable stage, afterwards sub-
stantially attained, where every component individual
was well educated and well mannered, well dressed
and well off.
No LONGER " Ireland Our Difficulty."
The nineteenth century, which had begun so badly
with us for Ireland, did not promise, just at the open-
ing of my retrospect, to close very much better. But
it did close very much better, indeed, ere the century
ended, and I am now about to tell how. As the first
facility in the way, all parties were at length cordially
agreed to regard Ireland as an entirely exceptional
case. The abstract must be freely sacrificed, if we
could thus but secure the concrete. There were two
duties before us ; first, to put down the rampant crime
to which extensive and protracted social unsettlement
had given opportunity ; and second, to settle to the
utmost possible, the resident Irish people as pro-
prietors upon the Irish soil. A resolute hand being
brought to bear, both of these objects were at last
and concurrently accomplished.
To eradicate the criminal elements, after a long
reign, which v^^as latterly of almost complete impunity,
was no easy task. But it was at last undertaken in
earnest, after repeated appalling outrages had aroused
the entire country, and exposed more clearly the
enemies to be dealt with. A thoroughly detective
system, aiming directly at criminals, was the chief
want, rather than extraneously coercive general
A THOUSAND TEAES HENCE. 153
measures, bearing grievously as they did upon the
■whole people. Accordingly, for a time a detective
poHce covered Ireland, alike to defend and encourage
the good as to restrain and ferret out the bad. The
law descended when necessary to the level of the law-
less, in order to fight secrecy and secret societies with
the like weapons. As the law had a comparative in-
finity of resom'ce in the sinews of war, it must needs
XDrevail, if it would but put forth all the needed
strength. It did so, and, as was fit, it prevailed. If
it had to fight at times in mean and inglorious ways,
that was because its enemies were no otherwise to be
met. But the one fought to preserve, the other to
destroy, society. In the end, Ireland became as
much a part of us as Cornwall or Northumberland,
Wales or Scotland. The fine Irish character was
quite restored, the ill-temper, as the souring of cen-
turies of injustice, all dispelled, and the social and
economic circumstances, if not entirely, at least very
largely, changed for a better future.
We had happily agreed in Ireland's exceptional
case, as I have said, to allow ordinary modes and
principles to be slapped in the face at discretion.
When neither land laws, nor land commissions of
the past would or could adequately attain the object,
we attained it by further and stronger means. When
the object must be attained, the means must be
such as would attain it. When the way had been
cleared by a final settlement of the arrears of rent
question, the bold course of limiting by law the terri-
torial holding to such value or area as might alike
do most justice to the land, and place the greatest
possible number of Irish families as proprietors upon
154 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Irish soil, soon brought about, by graduated process
of self-action, all the intended change and intended
condition. Eeasonable and necessary excei)tions to
the general rule were provided for.
Although the special trust system, -which finally
and so effectually resolved this great Irish problem,
was not applied at the very outset, it soon approved
its suitability in a field of such noble dimensions, and
converted the hobbling pace of the earlier efforts into
express speed. The sweeping measure of limited
landholding, of course, settled promptly and impar-
tially the fate of the old ^proprietary, who, however,
were by this time, in the very great majority of in-
stances, by no means averse, under all the circum-
stances of their case, to join in the general surrender.
They were met by the trust in a generous spirit, on
the equitable principle, that " compensation for dis-
turbance " should have universal and not mere class
application.
At the outset of this great trust operation, the
Government were called upon to make a most im-
portant declaration. It had been suggested, on
behalf of the intending investors in the trust-stock
issues, that, from their vast mass, the future debtors
to the trust might eventually combine to ignore their
obligations, and thus affect the solvency of the trust,
and the ultimate security of the stockholder. But
when the Government had tendered a solemn as-
surance, to the effect that the whole force of the law
would certainly, to the very end, hold the land to its
full obligations, the stock, thus duly accredited, was
taken on such favourable terms by the general public,
as to reduce materially the cost of the lands to their
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 155
respective purchasers. And further, by considerably
extending the term of years, the yearly rent and
redemption payment made together actually a smaller
amount than the current marketable rental.
One of the happiest features concluding the case,
and a result not entirely unexpected, although the
reality probably exceeded all expectation, was the sub-
stantial advance in landed value all over Ireland, as
this great territorial resettlement approached its com-
pletion. The effect of this advance was to diffuse at
once financial ease and comparative plenty, together
with all the contentment of such a condition, through-
out the whole country. In after years Ireland's ex-
ceptional land limitation measure, when no longer
required, was repealed ; and with this the last linger-
ing difference between the two sides of the Channel
was finally abolished.
156 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
CHAPTEE VIII.
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: SOME OF ITS PROMINENT
FEATURES.
It would not be until the twentieth century that we would
begin to feel the full benefit of the educational and other good
foundations laid in the nineteenth. — ^Author, chap. i.
In the twentieth century we began to reap substantial
fruit from the seed sown in the century before. We
had now, for example, the effects of the great education
measure ; for early in the twentieth century the last
of the uneducated masses of the old society had died
out. We have now, therefore, to see how universal
education comported itself. No doubt the evil as weU
as the good tendencies of human nature still remained
to society ; but the field for the former was gradually
narrowed, while that for the other was proportionately
enlarged, by the ameliorated conditions of all life and
business work. But before selecting some few of the
IDrominent illustrative instances of the century, let me
give a striking episode of its commencement, which,
however, I am happily able to describe as only
A Passing Transatlantic Family Jar.
A Canadian Fisheries Question is once more upon
us. The '* Dominion" had by this time consohdated
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 157
its authority over the entire vast area of British North
Araerica, and the colonial tone, on this old and irri-
tating question, was again none of the weakest.
The Home Government, even when hardly a^Dproving
colonial inflexibility, felt disposed, at this particular
conjuncture, to show that a colony's quarrel was their
own, seeing that certain Cassandras had been pre-
dicting that the empire was to be gradually sundered
for want of a thorough political union. The Imperial
Government would therefore take this good oppor-
tunity of practically showing them that they were
mistaken. But in despatching, for this special
pur^DOse, a full imperial regiment, to be stationed
on the Dominion frontier, the susceptibilities of the
United States were carefully guarded by explanatory
assurances that nothing beyond this imperial formality
was meant. The States accepted the assurances, but
at the same time despatched a like full regiment of
their own to meet the other at the frontier. This
move and counter-move did not tend to mend matters,
and there was free talk on both sides of even imme-
diate levies in the rear to support each regiment.
The two regiments at length hove in sight of each
other. Each had marched forward because the other
was marching, and each by calculated pace to itieet
the other at the frontier. When within speaking
distance, both sides instinctively and simultaneously
halted, each ready for battle, and each grimly survey-
ing the other. It seemed as though the slightest
impetuosity or indiscretion would precipitate mortal
international combat. There had been, indeed, strict
injunctions to either side not to begin an attack. But
this was not known until afterwards.
158 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
At this critical conjuncture, an old man stepped
forth from the British side. He was the senior in
years in his regiment, and was looked up to accord-
ingly. Walking up to the dividing line, which was
there still clearly cut in the primitive sod, he stood
across it, and stretching his arms to both sides cried
out, in a strong clear voice, intensified by evident
emotion, "The Old Mother's call is to all her children."
The effect was electrical. The soldiers on either side at
once rushed forward to the common boundary, where,
throwing down their arms in an indiscriminate heap,
they each cordially grasped the other's hand. All
danger was thenceforth at an end ; and in the subse-
quent official arrangements each side seemed only to
vie with the other in yielding, to the now recognized
common brotherhood, the points upon which they had
before so seriously differed.
Club Life after the Nineteenth Century.
The moral must accompany other progress. — Author, passim.
The Club, m the wide generality of its use, was
specially a nineteenth-century feature of our town
life." But the twentieth century had not only kept
up, but even much extended and improved the club
features of its predecessor. Not only was our
country's population greatly increased, but, from the
circumstances first alluded to, the proportions of its
educated, well-mannered, clubbable element, were of
necessity increased in a much greater ratio. While
the clubs of that time took a great membership
extension, together with accompanying palatial
A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE. 159
accommodations, all which were successfully realized,
chiefly by resigning their catering difficulties to
strictly professional hands, and while they advanced
also as centres of art and science, I am at present
more interested, as to club life, in certain features of
social advance which it also presented. A society
owes more than, perhaps, it usually thinks or confesses,
to the honest straightforward purpose, sound natural
feeling, and good common sense of those masses of
the people, who, with proper ambition, are ever
surging up into its ranks with the world's progress.
Thus we have had more just, humane, and suitable
laws ; and thus, too, we had, in the enlarged society
of the twentieth century, an improved public moral
sentiment, and improved club life.
Where there is already the predisposition,
incidents, small in themselves, may lead to great
results, as when a small trigger fires off a huge
gun. One of our grand clubs of this time furnished
another illustration. An altercation had arisen
between two of its members, ending in a personal
assault, the assaulting party pleading in defence
that he had been provoked by ungentlemanly bear-
ing. The case, famous as it afterwards became,
was simply this. The complainant had been
accosted, in gay hilarity, by the other, in order to
introduce the friend and fellow-member on his
arm, who, as he explained, was aspiring to be
the very pattern of virtue ; for whereas he , was wont,
in younger and stronger days, to seduce a woman
once a month, now that age's infirmities began
to tell, he was content with only once a quarter,
and by-and-by would be so correct and pure, that
160 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
ordinary mortals must hide their heads. He of whom
all this was told laughed most heartily ; it was, as he
remarked, such a capital joke. But the other, to
whom the said joke was addressed, at once turned his
back ; and, when again confronted for an explanation,
only repeated the offence. Thereupon followed the
angry cane over the offending back.
The magistrate's settlement of the matter next
morning, with the usual fine, and the usual parental
admonitions, went for nothing. When the two gay
friends understood that the club would be moved for
no less than their complete expulsion, they both
laughed outright, and seemingly a goodly and
sufficient muster of backers were ready to laugh
with them. But a great battle upon a great principle
was being prej^ared for, and as prej)aration went on
the laugh on the one side was proving to be much
more loud than general. Alarm therefore set in
upon that camj), and apologies and testimonials were
raked up, especially for the gay Lothario himself,
who was expected to be chiefly, if not solely attacked.
The social laxities in question, it was admitted, were
sadly much too common ; but their friend was, after
all, no worse than many other i^eople, who are yet
deemed perfectly respectable ; and besides, from his
having been in the army, some excusing allowance
was always of course due to the too ample leisure of
the soldier. Then a rector or two, and a still larger
number of curates, further testified to all reasonably
decorous externals. It was also in evidence that the
gallant officer had not hesitated to exchange regiments
in order to avoid India, whose climate did not suit
his constitution, it being ever a soldier's first duty to
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 161
maintain his health at its best for the service of his
country.
But all was of no avail, and Lothario was cast out.
His jocular friend, too, was sent after him ; for it was
held that to speak so lightly of such grave social
delinquencies was even a grosser outrage upon good
manners than the commission of the offence. Such
loose speech was especially injurious to the young ;
and it is chiefly as to them that even mere external
proprieties have inestimable value. The remarkable
movement, thus begun, extended generally through
the clubs ; and such of them as lacked the moral fibre
for the proper scavengering of the house were relegated
to a second rank, to become a sort of demi-monde of
club life.
But the new views were not without their difficulties
of practical application. Here, for instance, is some
well-known old sinner, but now quite venerable from
age, its infirmities, and its proprieties. There can be
no possible doubt about his past life, for he was wont
openly to boast of his successful libertinism, and he
showed at the time the lightest of hearts over the
track of human misery he might be leaving behind
him. But when age, or early excess, or both together,
had deprived him alike of power and enjoyment in the
old way, he became a changed, nay, even a religious
man — became, in fact, "rather more respectable than
other people." What, then, was to be done with this
perplexing specimen ? When his parson might be
assuring him that he was safely qualifying for heaven,
was he to be deemed unsuitable company for a mere
earthly club? But by this time, alas for, at least,
his earthly prospects, a spirit of true equity had set
M
162 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
in as regarded the treatment of the two sexes in such
questions. When this justly deahng knife was now
apphed to the cord, the cord snapped, and the
offender was dropped out, all his later respectabilities
and religious tendencies and his conditional peni-
tence notwithstanding. There were not wanting
those who at the time thought all this to be hard
measure. It was so indeed ; for the parties in ques-
tion were, in fact and of purpose, dealt with as
hardly, well-nigh, as had previously been their victims
of the other sex.
A characteristic incident occurred in the course of
this great social resanitation of the clubs. This was
no less than a most cordial acknowledgment from
the President of the United National Trades Unions
of that time, on behalf of countless parents and
families, directly interested for sisters' and daughters'
well-being. The president, at the same time, took
the ojDportunity of remarking, that certain previous
exhortations to temperance amongst the working
classes, made in admittedly good and friendly spirit
by the clubs to the unions, and not altogether dis-
regarded by the latter at the time, would have been
very much more weighty and appreciative had they
come after, instead of before, the exemplary procedure
in which the clubs were then engaged.
Women's Clubs.
Woman's equal right to all she finds to suit her. — Author,
chap. i.
Trade unions for the working-woman was already a
feature of the nineteenth century, as were also ser-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 168
vants' institutions, homes, and such-like, promoted
from outside their own ranks. But the woman's
club, so far as it was the full counterpart to that
of the other sex, belongs properly to the twentieth
century, in which, indeed, it took a prominent and
widely useful part. There was this difference, how-
ever, in the two cases, that whereas club life, with
the stronger sex, began as an upper-class feature,
with the other sex it began in quite the opposite
direction. The first attempt at what was proj)erly
the woman's club was on behalf of the great class
of domestic servants, and had chiefly in view at first
the sure provision of an independent and comfortable
home for the later life of its members. But the club
was also largely available for Sundays or holidays,
and for intervals between engagements ; and it was
ever, with its protecting respectabilities, a resource
and shelter, more especially to the young and the
stranger who were first entering life in the large
towns. At first only the simpler arrangements were
attempted, by which, in exchange for small but
regular contributions spread over the earlier years,
an independent home was secured towards the end
of life. But in after years, when women's club
institutions, made applicable to female vocations in
general, became universal, and upon a scale pre-
viously quite undreamt of, they were enabled, by a
kind of affiliation to one or other of the great general
insurance companies of those times, or to some section
of the Government insurance system, to secure any
special arrangement that more exactly suited the
endless variety in the wants of a well-nigh countless
membership.
164 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
This commeD cement of the great future institution
of woman's club life was made just prior to the close
of the nineteenth century, and arose in London out
of a great public meeting at the Mansion House, con-
vened by the then philanthropic Lord Mayor. His
lordship had remarked that, although overwhelmed
with other work, he must find a spare hour for so
excellent an object, even at the cost of making twenty-
five hours to the day. The intention was that the
domestic servants themselves should be summoned,
to take up and carry out independently their own
cause. More than a thousand attended, and the
result was a complete success. Ere the sun of the
twentieth century broke over us, this section of club
life was already a distinctive and beneficial featm'e of
the social life of the time.
Other classes and vocations of the sex afterwards
fully established their respective clubs. There were,
for example, dramatic clubs, in which the amateur
and the professional freely mingled, and which not
only met the convenience, but powerfully helped to
guard and maintain the respectability of the di'umatic
corps. The legion of postal telegraph and telephone
emplo3^ees had also their clubs. Further, there were
clubs in connection with female medical practice — a
sphere of woman's work which the twentieth century
saw fully taken up, and which was generally acknow-
ledged to be as entirely becoming, as it was entirely in-
dispensable, to sexual delicacy and proprieties. Lastly,
were the political clubs ; for in this twentieth century
the franchise had passed to both sexes alike ; and not
without a distinct political advantage, as the tendency
of the female vote had been rather towards general
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 165
good qualities, as distinguished from the male-vote
tendency towards mere party qualities, in candidature.
The collective female vote acted as a kind of Upi)er
House of the franchise, whose calmer consideration
ever tempered the storms of the Lower Chamber, the
male vote.
A Trade Union Crisis of the Twentieth Century.
Yellowly, ardent unionist as he was, was not blind to union
defects. — Author, chap. i.
Speaking colonially, we of the mother country were
wont to complain or regret that what is called, or
miscalled, " Protection" had re-arisen in some of the
colonies, after argument and experience had finally
disposed of it at home. And so might it have been
said of the particular kind of trade-union crisis I am
now to allude to ; for the kind of event in question
could still arise upon colonial soil, at a time of the
twentieth century when it was deemed an impossibility
upon the more advanced home ground. The scene in
this colonial case was Australia, and the occasion of
it was one of those great commercial reactions, which
had not ceased to be a feature out there, in company
with all the general forward advance, there as well as
elsewhere, of the century. When employment fell off
just at this time, and wages seriously dropj)ed, the
colonial unions most directly affected took up the
cause of labour, and maintained that the Government
should intervene, and, by means of public works or
otherwise, continue the full employment and fair
wages of the past. What was the use of a Govern-
ment, they said, if not to help in a time of need the
166 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
most important sections of society under its care ?
There were still means in hand to do this, and when
these ran out, more could be levied from the ample
resources of the whole society. The government of
the place and the day were in dire perplexity ; for
while they felt that such a directly class demand
must be resisted, the unions in question, with their
great numerical power in the franchise, threatened a
successful political opposition if their demands were
not satisfied.
At this time our illustrious Yellowly, the great
trade union reconstructor, was still alive, and, not-
withstanding advanced years, still busy in completing
his reformatory work. He still was, as he had long
previously been, the honoured president of that great
representative body, the United National Trades
Union, which he himself had instituted as the kind of
Upper House, or High Court of Appeal, of union life.
Yellowly, as head of the home unions, on this serious
and compromising occasion, had at once telegraphed
to those at the antipodes, in entire disapproval of
this demand. While exhorting the colonial Govern-
ment to make no surrender whatever, he promised
a prompt support from the great body of which he
was head, and of whose decided mind on the subject
he entertained not a doubt. Such crises, he said,
were the liability indiscriminately of all classes, and
the Government could not help any one in particular
except at the cost of the others. Hosts of clerks and
other employees were ever being thrown out by such
crises, and legions of sewing-women were in crises
more or less every day of the year, and yet never
dreamt of ax}peal to Government. And were our
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 167
hardy working-men to be the only class unable or
unwillmg to face the contingencies of their life and
lot?
The great home union was at once summoned to
discuss and pronounce upon the question. The tele-
graphs and telephones of the day could accom]plish
that business with equal ease and promptitude. It
was not necessary that all members should attend
personally, for even at Land's End or John o' Groats
they were enabled, by telephonic connection, either
to speak or to listen to central London, much as
though personally present within the hall of meeting
itself.
Nor was opposition unexpected ; for the views in
question were the still lingering remnants of tena-
ciously held unionist ideas of the nineteenth century.
The great assembly duly met, and the discussion,
waxing warm at times, was protracted almost beyond
precedent. Yellowly, in his presidential chair,
strengthened by the excitement as well as the im-
portance of the occasion, sat erect to the very end.
When discussion was exliausted he rose to put the
question, and by a large majority carried the case
against the Australian co-unionists. The chairman
congratulated his class-fellows upon the proper victory
of equitable and reasonable views.
That famous discussion marked a trade union era
for the entire empire. The ojDposing unions at the
other side, as the Government there most cordially
apprised Yellowly, had loyally accepted defeat, and
at once abandoned all their claims and designs. But
the victory was dearly bought. The venerable pre-
sident, who had greatly overtaxed the strength which
168 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
ninety years of busy life had left him, broke down
after concluding the labours of that protracted sitting,
and was taken direct to his bed, from which he never
again rose alive. But his memory remained behind,
and we shall come upon his work again ere long in
the course of our retrospect.
Social Eesanitation — A Disposition to takc Society's
Evils thoroughly in Hand.
We needed quite a new departure in mendicancy and crime.
— Author, chap. i.
No feature of the life of the twentieth century was
more striking than that of the resolute struggle into
which we were then plunged, for a thorough social
and moral resanitation. The resanitation of the
other or material kind, already alluded to, which had
partly preceded and j)repared the way for, and partly
accompanied this present movement, and the success
of which, in the case of London, had promptly spread
its benefits to other of our chief cities and towns,
had powerfully helped to turn public attention in this
new direction. The end in view was no less than the
complete extirpation, on the one hand, of all the
hereditary professional criminal element, and on
the other of all the diversified heritage of professional
mendicancy ; that is to say, of every form of begging,
mendicant tramping, gipsjdng, and general vaga-
bondage throughout the country.
It was no small help towards these great national
purposes that the age teemed with stimulation and
suggestion. Necessity had laid its hand upon society ;
for besides the fact of the increasing density of the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 169
population, which was thus with each passing year
more and more unsuitable for every form of unsettled
life, there was already beginning to be felt the direct
effect of the sanitary reconstructions going on, not
only in London itself, the prime mover in that way,
but also at the other chief urban centres, in turning
all the criminal class out of the long-accustomed
dark dens and recesses of old town life, which had
previously sheltered from common view the hosts of
those owls of the night. Nor must we forget the
stimulus imparted by a universally educated people,
who could thus more clearly apprehend existing social
defects, and understand how best to grapple with
them.
There was in particular one conspicuous feature of
the new movement. Listening at last to the repeated
admonitions of science, we had now turned our atten-
tion to repressing, by all reasonably practical means,
the progenital continuation of the bad or worthless
existing elements with which we were thus so vigorously
waging war. '* Like parent, like child." We might
securely dispose of the hardened parents, so that they
should no longer harm the rest of society ; but it
they freely left their brood to take their place, all ol
society's work had simply to be done over again, and
even upon an ever-increasing scale. Already we
restrained lunatics from leaving behind them a like
lunatic offspring. Thenceforward, in that way, our
restraining efforts were extended to the criminal, and
to the useless and worthless in general. Our new
policy, in short, in this particular department of it,
was substantially to this effect — that every child of
the society, even of the most questionable origin,
170 A THOUSAND \EARS HENCE.
which did get into the world, should be properly
cared for, so as to give it all the best chances ; but
that all the care possible to the somewhat delicate
case should be taken, that as few more of such children
as might be should follow them.
All of this new project, bearing upon the criminal
and mendicant elements of society, involved an ap-
paratus of vast preliminary effort and expense. The
State must have reckoned upon having, at the outset,
to 23rovide for, as well as control, a huge mass of
criminal, worthless, and helpless beings. But if the
State could clear all these demoralizing elements out
of sight upon society's highway, and, by having them
generally in secure permanent disciplinary charge,
prevent, in great measure, inter-marriage and the
legacy of a like succession, the State and society
would be eventually great gainers. The present cost
would form a capital account, large indeed, but well
laid out ; as the succeeding generation would emerge
u23on an altogether higher social platform. Let us
glance for a moment at both sections of this subject,
the criminal and the mendicant.
1. Our New Policy with Crime.
The hardened and hopeless criminal, who would be released
only to reattack society, should not be reallowed the oppor-
tunity.— Author, chap. i.
All over the country, and more especially in the
great metropolis, there existed a multitudinous class
of professional criminals. These were mostly them-
selves the descendants of criminals before them, and
they were mostly rearing descendants of their own
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 171
who were to succeed them. These persons were
everywhere, and in almost every individual case, per-
fectly vrell known to the respective local police, which
police, ever watching these wary and adroit subjects,
would make occasional arrests of the more maladroit,
who, after, in most cases, some brief interval of seclu-
sion, would be freely restored to prey, as before, upon
society.
Now the new idea as to all this professional and
hopeless criminal element, was that on every reason-
ably possible occasion it should, even for its own
good, as well as for that of society at large, be placed
permanently under lock and key. If, for instance,
there was solid ground for believing that any criminal,
if set at large, would only forthwith resume his
criminality, why do him the injustice to set him at
large ? No doubt criminals had their rights ; but
it now began to be seriously thought that the rights
of the non-criminal part of society ought to have an
equal consideration.
This new and extirpatory method with crime took
its initiatory movement as far back as the last
quarter of the nineteenth century, when the casual
or non-professional lawbreaker, and especially the
juvenile first offender, began to be strictly distin-
guished, and kept carefully separate from the hardened
and hopeless professional. The new policy aimed
to deal tenderly with all the former, as persons who
might yet be even good citizens ; but to permanently
lock up the latter, as persons of w^hom there could
be reasonably no such hope. From this correct
beginning w^e graduated onwards, giving, as required,
exceptional powders to our^courts, to meet all excep-
172 A THOUSAND YEARS HI^NCE.
tional cases. There had been, too often in the past,
a senselessly absurd miscarriage of justice, where the
judge or magistrate had to confess that the atrocity
of the case before him could not be adequately, or
even perhaps at all, reached by the existing law.
Henceforth he himself was therefore constituted the
exceptional law for such exceptional cases ; and as
all courts in such cases were open, and all sentences
revisable, the discretion thus confided, while much
more effectually j)i'otecting or avenging the innocent,
was in no great danger of abuse towards the guilty.
We may turn, by way of illustration, to one glaring
social wrong, which, in particular, pressed upon
society at this time for such exceptional remedies.
This was the terribly prevalent, and hitherto far too
safely ^Dursued system of deceiving, seducing, or kid-
napping young women for immoral purposes — a
wrong truly more awful to its victims than the foulest
murder, but as to which, in its various ways of
devilish ingenuity, our courts had too often to confess
that they stood powerless in trying to apply the
actual law. One chief aim also was " to protect young
girls from artifices to induce them to lead a corrupt
life." This whole question, in fact, was in the con-
dition of a continual outrage upon society's sense
of justice and humanity. When in addition to
stricter legal enactment, discretionary power was
given to the courts, in all cases of this kind, to
estimate actual offence and wrong-doing, and to
award accordingly, the evil was at once seized by
the throat and virtually put an end to.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 173
2. As TO Begging and General Vagabondage.
A great wrong to the poorer classes in the facility to lapse
into idle, useless, and mendicant life. — Author, chap. i.
Towards the close of the nineteenth century, this
particular form of the evils of society had at last
culminated into the intolerable. The different autho-
rities concerned, or which ought to have been con-
cerned, seemed to have been scared by the irrepressible
magnitude, the infectious increase, and all the in-
genious devices of the ubiquitous begging element.
In and about London, for instance, the streets and
suburban roads were thronged with beggars, vigorously
plying their one common vocation under all varieties
of pretence. One vast section of this begging element
formed, at every few steps, a pervading public nuisance
— somewhat special to the metropolis — by its impor-
tunate solicitation under pretence of crossing-sweep-
ing. And yet, the object being simply begging, the
streets still remained unswept in presence of this
countless legion, and had to be attended to in this
way when required, just as though the said legion
had no existence. The whole country teemed with
idle and begging and thieving tramps, who were
too often able-bodied persons, refusing work, and
ready for outrage, if needful, to back their demands.
There was, besides, a wretched gipsying life, which
demoralized and discomforted every locality it suc-
cessively visited. The professional begging-letter
impostor, and sundry other forms of begging im-
position, filled up the unsavoury and unwholesome
picture.
174 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
The state was at length aroused to take in hand
this entire mendicancy case, in common with that of
crime. The two cases had a strong point of contact,
and the management of the one merged substantially
into that of the other. The great object of the Govern-
ment, in facing the difficulties of this question was, on
the one hand, the adequate and discriminative care
for all real poverty or destitution ; and, on the other,
the entire abolition of indiscriminate, irregular, un-
systematic charity. But it was not proposed, on the
Government's part, to intervene as to either supplying
the necessary funds, or assuming the management.
On the contrary, no small hope of the new system
was that it would eventually dispense entirely with
the degrading and demoralizing public Poor Law, a
hoj)e which was, indeed, eventually realized.
The proposed new system consisted, substantially,
of an adequate extension of the then best subsisting
forms of " Charity Organization." The State in-
augurated a Ministry of Charity, which included, for
the time, the old Poor Law administration ; and it
thereupon summoned to its help both the philan-
thropic sentiment and the united systematic effort
of the whole country. The great aj^peal was not
made in vain. When adequate preparation had thus
been effected, the Government issued their earnest
exhortation, amounting, indeed, to parental command,
that thenceforward all indiscriminate, all unsystematic
charity should come to an end.
The State w^as in no way disposed to conceal what
it was about ; so that there was ample warning to
the entire begging fraternity, of the revolution that
was about to fall upon them. Nor was the warning
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 175
without excellent effect, as the visible commotion in
the begging ranks showed, towards the approach of
the appointed time. A huge section of those ranks,
which abhorred regulated charity almost as much
as regular work, had entirely disappeared. But
although enough yet remained for a great and difficult
task, yet the work was manfully encountered, and
successfully dealt with. Distress and destitution were
not only everywhere systematically relieved, but every-
where even systematically and successfully sought out.
A very chief object of the new system was the care of
all the more destitute of the young. The State, as
the common parent, and with reference to the maturer
life ahead, and the succession which it would certainly
leave behind, was wisely concerned for this exposed
section of its great family.
The stream of national voluntary charity, thus
systematically directed, proved, in the event, always
ample for its work ; nor were ministering heads and
hands ever in any short supply. In this new and
discriminative field of charity, all those who, by age
or infirmity, were past work were duly cared for ; the
able and willing were helped into work ; the able but
unwilling were coercively and reformatively dealt
with. If the scene had opened with a crowd of help-
lessness that might well have overwhelmed the liveliest
charity, yet, with each successive year's experience
and amelioration, the case became more and more
manageable, imtil, at least, in the succeeding genera-
tion, every serious difficulty, in. the great original
problem, had entirely disappeared.
176 a thousand years hence.
Yet one more Step of Advance and Eeform.
The old phrase that '' John Bull could do nothing
without a dinner," represented a national weakness of
our public life, which was happily to come to an end
with the busier and better life he entered upon in the
twentieth century. Our gross and costly, time-wast-
ing, and health-injuring habit of incessant and uni-
versal public dinner- stuffing was no longer either
consistent or possible after the nineteenth century.
We had then too many other and higher objects in
hand. Accordingly, this habit expired in favour of
one much less costly and more edifying, that, namely,
of social and intellectual evening gatherings, where
the " refreshments " were of the simplest, and in no
way or degree of obstructive effect as regarded the
other and chief objects of the assemblage.
This change of the taste and fashion of the time
was remarkable chiefly for introducing a practically
open door system of evening receptions, on the part
of the leading persons, official, scientific, or others of
the day ; a system which developed into a great
national institution and political and social resource
of the twentieth and succeeding centuries. In exjDla-
nation further of this decided change in our old social
and somewhat exclusive ways, we must bear in mind
that society had become, by this time, much broader
and more inclusive, by the universal diffusion of
education, as well as of a fairly well-off condition, and
of those good manners and that sense of proprieties,
which made such open sociability enjoyable, and
indeed possible. We had also the benefit of a much
freer and more frequent intermixture with foreign
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 177
society outside of us ; for, with all the improved
locomotion of the age, travelling was our universal
resort for all classes and all circumstances. And,
again, the visits which we thus increasingly paid to
our neighbours far and near, began also to be as
cordially and fully reciprocated by them.
Ministerial receptions of this comprehensive kind
became, in particular, the feature of the time ; and
when the palatial accommodations, furnished by
our centralized public office system, became available,
these great assemblages at once assumed the character
of a grand national institution. The science, the
progress, the general intelligence of the time were
ever there freshly represented. The effectual shorten-
ing of parliamentary sittings by the " Special Han-
sard " method, akeady alluded to, was eminently
favourable to this new politico-social departure. The
wearied minister in '* The House " could be promptly
refreshed by a short walk through the great corridors
of the national edifice, transferring him, mind and
body, from the graver to the lighter sphere, within
still timely evening hours, and all underneath one
and the same roof. These official intermingHngs and
receptions became at last the business and social
resource of every evening all the year round, and the
pleasant scene where the highest and the humblest of
society met together for mutual acquaintance, edifica-
tion, and good- will.
An Enemy still Capturing our Territory, even
AFTER the entire CESSATION OF WaR.
All along our coasts, such as these coasts still
\eie, at this stage of my retrospect, and more
N
178 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
especially the southern and south-eastern, were the
evidences that the sea, in past times, had been un-
remittingly busy, and almost without let or hindrance,
in swallowing up the land. Even up to, and during,
the nineteenth century, we took these repeated losses
of national territory with remarkable composure. A
very different spirit had come over us in the twentieth
century ; that spirit, namely, which sent us reclaim-
ing and embanking, in order to get back all that we
could of those terrible ocean robberies of the past.
Precautions were everywhere prescribed by authority,
so that no such national calamity and national
scandal as a landslip into the sea should now, by any
possibility, occur.
Nevertheless, the atrocious incident in question did
once more happen, and at a time also that was even
far into the twentieth century. When the people
awoke one morning to learn that, during the night, a
score of acres of our southern coast had suddenly
subsided and slipped into the Channel waves, grief
and regret first, and then high indignation, filled
every mind. The Government of the day felt as much
concerned as though a great political crisis had come
upon them, a crisis which might possibly end in
turning them out of office. All the proprietors of the
coast had long ago been bound, under heavy penalties,
to report at once upon the slightest symptoms of land-
sli^Dping, and such an event had thus become as rare
as it was unwelcome. Happily, on this occasion, for
all the reputations that were in jeopardy, some hidden
natural causes were proved to have been at their under-
mining work, and thus proprietor and Government
were alike delivered from some serious consequences.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 179
A Trade Union Strike at the end of the Twentieth
Century.
Some prophets would have confidently gone for an
entire cessation of strikes, under the anticipated
advanced features of the twentieth century. The
working classes, they might have thought, would, by
that time, by help of sound economic progress, have
managed to arrange their differences in some other
way. Nevertheless, a notable strike did occur at the
advanced time I have indicated ; and its particulars,
which I am about to give, are somewhat special and
cm'ious, as well as illustrative of that particular time.
The illustrious Yellowly had not overlooked strikes in
his reforming efforts. He, in fact, entirely approved
the principle of strikes, as a last resort. He only
disapproved of that lax or hasty procedure which
resulted in his class being the losing party, and thus
proving that there ought not to have been, for such
occasions, the national as well as special loss of a
strike. The notable strike, which I am now to record,
ended, in Yellowly's justifying way, by the success of
the strikers. And yet it had no unpleasant features
for either side, and was otherwise quite characteristic
of the advanced methods, as well as the larger scale
of the business works of those times, as compared
with the times preceding them. The thing happened
in this way.
The great special trust, which had been created for
the embankment and reclamation of the Thames'
mouth, was, by this time at full work ; and one of its
contracts — engaging for a thousand million gross of
the extra-sized, everlasting, sea-resisting composite
180 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
brick — had been taken, under competitive public
tender, by several conjoined co-operative partnerships
of working brickmakers. The quick turn-over, by
means of universally applied machinery, made pos-
sible the working of great contracts of such a kind
upon comparatively small capital, and thus gave, in
one direction at least, a decided advantage to these
co-partners, whose individual members were them-
selves the direct labour element in the business. By
this time, also, brickmaking had entirely emerged
from its old toil and drudgery ; while, by aid of ever
improving machinery, the outjDut had become so
enormously increased, expedited, and cheapened, that
bricks of all sorts and sizes were being used well-nigh
everywhere and for everything ; so that this trade, in
particular, had thus advanced to altogether unpre-
cedented proportions, importance, and prosperity.
In the present case, the successful tenderers had
based their close calculations mainly upon the help
of certain recently improved portions of brickmaking
machinery, which were only to be had of the very best
quahty across the Atlantic, and from whence, of
course, they had been duly ordered. But although, at
that time, our shipping was alike powerful, commodious
and safe, to an unprecedented degree, the storms, as
well as other meteorologic extremes of the old times, had
not yet been tamed down, as at present, by our great
sea-reclaiming processes, which have so contracted
the evaporable surface, and diminished that cloud
and vapour of our atmosphere, which was wont to be
concerned in such pranks with our weather. On this
particular occasion, so terrible a storm arose, that all
the finer brickmaking machinery in question, handy
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 181
as it lay upon the deck for prompt discharge, and
immediate appHcation to use, was either knocked to
pieces or washed overboard.
Well, the strike was directed against the application
of strict contract time, under these unavoidable cir-
cumstances, and against the heavier work to which
human backs must be subjected, if the contract supply
must go on, without awaiting the effective aid of the
special machinery in question, which machinery had,
of course, been at once reordered from Massachusetts,
on the occasion of the loss above mentioned. The
trust was to suffer damage, because, in default of the
large brick supply, just at the exact stipulated time,
much other engaged work was kept waiting. But the
great Brickmakers' Union stood firm to principle,
and was duly justified in its course by the arbitration
which followed. The backbone of iron and steel, at
once cheap and enduring, uncomplaining and unsuffer-
ing, had now been definitively substituted for that
of our more sensitive humanity, in all the rougher
sections of the work of progress ; and to descend from
this needful and appropriate elevation and protection
was alike injurious to, and unworthy of, our high
civilization.
182 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
CHAPTEE IX.
THE TWENTY-FIBST CENTURY : ITS ILLUSTRATION BY A
PROGRESS OF PRINCIPLES.
Reed would sketch out the National Church of the future.
— Author, chap. i.
One of Yellowly's great aims was the institution of a permanent
representative National Trades Union, as a High Court of
Appeal in union life. — Ibid.
There was a grand material progress in this twenty-
first century, which excelled that of the twentieth as
much as the twentieth excelled the nineteenth, and
the nineteenth the centuries that preceded it. But
leaving that to be understood or estimated by the
reader from the allusions in preceding chapters, I
shall devote the present chapter rather to certain
national institutions, and their condition as character-
istic of the times ; and I would begin, as a good
Churchman ought, with —
Our National Church — as it appeared and fared
IN this Twenty-first Century of our Era.
Just up to the twentieth century, the prominent
idea of a national Church, in popular estimation, was
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 183
that of a bundle of privileges. The environing warmth
of privilege seemed to be of the very life's essence of
the Church. To possess and maintain distinctively
for her members, privileges — pecuniary, political,
ecclesiastical — which others of the community, outside
her religious pale, had not, seemed the main triumph
of good churchmanship. I have already alluded to
the first great blow, happily and successfully struck,
and, to the Church's great credit, struck from within
her own body, at this very low system. The success
of this first step, on behalf of the Church's standing
and influence, was so remarkable, that others after-
wards followed, in the anti-temporalities war of those
times, until the Church could at length claim that
she stood upon her own inherent strength, with no
privilege whatever that was not equally attainable
by any other religious body of the common country.
This lofty and independent position prepared her for
a further movement, which proved of the highest
importance for her future extension and usefulness.
Many questions had been accumulating for the
Church in those times, arising, on the one hand, out
of advanced science and biblical criticism, and, on
the other, out of the old contention as to Tradition
versus Scripture. Protestantism arose to replace the
latter in supremacy; while historical research over
the ground of Church and Episcopate had latterly
shown that, however convenient and suitable as a
human development, these must not take precedence
of '' The Word of God." Was our national Church,
therefore, truly Protestant in this sense ; or, abhorring
the very name, as her very " High " section would
express it, did she contradictorily follow suit with her
184 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
cast-off progenitor at the Vatican, in placing the
Church's authority above that of Scripture, and thus
committing herself to an independent highway of her
own ?
If, then, the Church, with Scripture in one hand,
and her Prayer-book in the other, must needs revise
her position, might she not invite the whole Christian
people to her help ? While we still called ourselves
the National Church, yet, from one cause and another,
one-half of the nation, or more, was outside our pale.
Here was a grand opportunity ; and the large-minded
primate of that day fully appreciated all its possi-
bilities, when he made his memorable national appeal
for the reconstruction of a national church upon the
sole basis of Scripture. There was, to begin with,
a frank acknowledgment, in the interests of historic
truth, that the original "EpiscojDUs" of the earlier
church was not what time and society's developments
had afterwards made him.
This national appeal was not made in vain. The
tendency of the new movement was towards col-
lecting all the steady religious elements into a
great national church. If the old distinctive sects
still survived, they were comparatively dwarfed
in numerical membership and influence, resembling
a narrow but varied border to the great central
floor of society. These small but zealous bodies
were ever attacking and denouncing the central
mass ; but even still more were they at eternal strife
with each other. There was, as one remarkable
feature, a large accession of the " Liberal Catholic "
element, a section which had latterly been at in-
creasing variance with the Ultramontane extremes of
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 185
the Eoman Church. We shall again meet with our
reconstituted National Church further on, and see
how she then also fared.
The United National Trades Union, and its First
Centenary of the Death of Yellowly.
Ere the great Yellowly had quitted the world, he
had succeeded in a chief object of his life, namely,
the creation of a great permanent, national, repre-
sentative trades union. It was by means of such a
body — created out of, and representing, all the other
like bodies — that he hoped best to reform all the
latter, and rid them of all the erroneous or vicious
tendencies, which had heretofore limited their mem-
bership, and weakened their influence. Success
followed his efforts, and when he finally closed a
long and busy life, he had left behind him a system
that promised to work to the credit and well-being
of his order and of his country. One hundred years
had rolled over since that time, and it was now the
duty of the great union president of the day to
celebrate the first centenary of the death of the
honoured founder. In abridged form I give some few
of his more striking observations.
Address of its President.
The president remarked that there were three
different subjects to notice in this proposed retrospect.
First, he would look at their own advance, which, as
a representative union, they had accomplished by
following the lines laid down for them by their
186 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
illustrious founder. Next, he would consider the
progress of their country as to certain leading ques-
tions, in which they were interested on hehalf of the
great body of the people, and as to which they had
been able to intervene with decided and beneficial
effect. And, lastly, he would extend his view to the
general aspect, alike of his own country, and of the
world at large, in all that enlivening race of progress
upon which both were now surely embarked.
The Union's Eeforms.
Yellowly's prime rule ever was, that union principles
and union action should be unchallengable. Besides
being the right thing in itself, this was almost even
more for them, as the sure and only highway to that
influence and power which ought to be, and which
might be, wielded by a section of society so indis-
pensable and numerically so great as theirs. The
ju'esident then pointed out, in his comparative sketch,
the narrow, selfish, and altogether unworthy aspect
of many of the union rules and practices, as they
stood in the nineteenth century. But as their order
had long since emerged from all this mass of inferiority
and weakness, there was the less need to sacrifice
much time and thought upon it now. Yellowly had
especially set his face against every kind and form
of union coercion ; and, by his persistent efforts in this
direction, he had altered the entire union constitution,
so as to convert membership into a valued privilege,
instead of a coercive inclusion. His effective lever
in all his high class reforms was this great repre-
sentative National Trades Union, which, as his own
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 187
special creation, now remains the monument of his
sagacious foresight, to fulfil the duties of a High Court
of Appeal in all union life.
Its Political Intervention and Eesults. — Some
Chief Political Questions of the Day.
This intervention, under all the cii*cumstances, was
altogether inevitable. Public questions of the most
vital kind came up to the front in quick succession,
towards the close of the nineteenth, and during the
twentieth centuiy. The settlement of these questions,
in directions most favourable to progress, and to the
well-being of the masses of the people, was only one
part of the case. Another part, not less important,
was that there should be prompt settlement, so as
to give the benefits of victory, and of the new order
of things, to the generation which fought the battles.
As regarded legislation in particular, this expediting
work had been rendered possible to us by the " Special
Hansard " facilities, which Parliament had latterly
adopted, and of which mention has already been
made.
This authoritative intervention on our part in these
questions, remarked the president, opened quite a
new era to the great body of the working classes.
When they had successfully set their own house in
order, their views as to the great edifice of the nation
were given with the more self-confidence, and listened
to with the more attention and good-will. It must
be remembered, too^ that the vast union membership
consisted now, throughout, of well educated and fairly
well-off persons ; and that, as the rule, the unions
188 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
possessed considerable funds, which were, in most
cases, wisely used.
One of our earliest and hardest battles was to
secure to the whole people the facilities and benefits
of the decimal and metric system. The strain in the
first step was ever the block in the way here ; and
but for our imperative intervention, the hesitation of
the country might have indefinitely postponed that
preliminary crisis, which each year's delay in the
advancing society was only to render of the greater
dimensions. With our unsystematic and confused
moneys and weights and measures, we resembled a
man with all his limbs out of joint, but who stood
shivering and hesitating over the indispensable pre-
liminary wrench, which was to set him to rights.
The " permissive " system having failed, the com-
pulsory must be resorted to. The general diffusion
of education, by the time our successful action opened
in this case, had a decided effect, alike in mitigating
first difficulties, and abbreviating the trying interval
of transition from the old to the new system. In thus
practically superseding multiplication and division
in the daily arithmetic of the people's life and busi-
ness, we appreciably unhandicapped the entire in-
dustrial front, and thenceforth sent the country
onwards at a goodly increase of pace.
In fiscal policy, again, we held successfully for two
leading principles. Public revenue, in countries so
settled, populous, and wealthy as ours, should by this
time be levied, mainly if not indeed whoUy, from
only two sources, which ought to prove always
sufficient. First, from realized property, seeing that
the costly fabric of government was substantially for
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 189
the protection and interests of property ; and, second,
out of that continually advancing value of the country's
real estate, of which the j)eople, as a whole, should
thus enjoy some share or small percentage, seeing
it is mainly due to their increasing numbers and
industrial wealth-creating attainments.
The great and varied Land Question opened early
upon us, and our union was able to bear with decided
and beneficial effect upon its settlement. The con-
current Irish Land Question had a certain confusing
effect, which we were useful in dissipating. In the
exceptional Irish measure, the principle was " Justice
to the people ; " in the other and more ordinary case
it was " Justice to the land." The land must yield
its greatest and best return by passing freely to the
hands that could best use it. The court to settle
"fair rent" must therefore, as the rule, continue to
be, as in every other industrial direction, the court
of open competition. If John Smith can't get ^0500
a year out of the land, and John Jones can, Jones
must, of the two, have the farm, if we mean justice
to the land; otherwise we are back to ''protection,"
in its most injurious form of artificially restricted
production. There are exceptions, however, to every
general rule, and we had repeatedly to back the
" crofters' " case, when it reached the character and
magnitude of a public question, and when, as being
thus akin to the Irish case, it claimed some like deal-
ing. When the question is the forcible expulsion of
multitudes of our people from cherished ancestral
homes, the possibility of some other arrangement
should not be beneath public concernment, and accord-
ingly the Trust System found on occasion its genial
190 A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE.
application here, to the content and comfort of
multitudes of homes. But keeping in view, as our
main principle, this said justice to the land, it was
comparatively easy to attain suitable land measures.
There was no long battle over primogeniture,
entails, and the other remnants of an old feudality,
which had admittedly fallen out of consonance with
modern sentiment and social conditions. The public
law, at any rate, must not deal injustice in family
inheritance, whatever may be allowed to private
authority. And, again, the dead hand must be
entirely lifted off the living world. Those who quitted
the world must not hamper and trammel those left
in its charge. And, again, the vicious habit of pro-
vision-making for heirs and descendants, instead of
allowing them the healthful stimulus of fighting their
own way in the world, must be further checked by
strict limitation to persons actually in life. This
form of injustice to the country's future, as well as
to the individual himself, must not be perpetrated
upon the unborn.
While we in the mother country were still in the
throes of vexations and interminable discussions over
our complex land title, after repeated failure of
permissive and tentative measures, our colonial
children were already in the full enjoyment of public
registry of title, and the consequent prompt and
inexpensive land dealing. Our suggestion that the
State should undertake, and at once, to clear the
title for the whole country was adopted. The State
was duly at work, " clearing and registering title "
everywhere, with all the promptitude possible to so
huge a work, to the boundless advantage of the
A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE. 191
country, and satisfaction of the people ; and the State
was afterwards readily and fully reimbursed by a
small fee upon the countless land transfers that
followed.
For many preceding years a theoretical jangle had
been kept up as to how far such facilities would
promote small landholding, and as to the advantage
of such landholding, and so on. But the State's
chief concern and duty in the matter was simply to
remove obstruction. The marked and promj)t result
of this removal was, that the land fell freely to those
hands which could use it to most purpose, and that
the whole country acquired, in consequence, a decided
impetus to its forward pace and prosperity.
Other great questions did beset us, continued the
president. Should there be nationalization of the
land, or even, as a less extreme alternative, a coercive
Hmitation of landholding, in our comparatively
narrow and crowded area? Provocation for inter-
vention was not wanting, more especially in that
partial and hugely unequal landholding and distribu-
tion of wealth, which the public law had still fostered,
long after the circumstances of society had belied it.
The ancient baron, on his great estate, had five
hundred retainers, ready to turn out with their lordly
head to the battle-field. But the modern lord had
turned all these into domestics, who, in their modern
emasculation, kept their master's palace and kitchen
gardens, and cooked his dinner. But now the entire
abolition of the law's injurious fostering restrictions
was deemed sufficient. He was happy to record the
moderation and good practical common sense with
which his co-unionists opposed all extreme and
192 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
upsetting propositions. The nationalization project,
in particular, which they rejected, got no support
from the example of countries which, like Switzer-
land, had long freed themselves from old traditional
land conditions, or which, like the United States of
America, had never been subject to them. Two
conditions, however, were successfully contended for
on behalf of the whole people. First, that every
requirement of land that could reasonably claim a
public interest or object, must be allowed ; of course,
on due and full compensation. Second, that all land,
while still in its natural unimproved state, must be,
or continue to be, open to the public. It was
intolerable that, for instance, a handful of proprietary
should, on any consideration whatever, fence out the
people from the wild mountains and glens of their
native land. No plea should be allowed here, any
more than to the ordinary thief, on the ground of
time and non-disturbance. And even if fancy values,
at times and places, did suffer somewhat under this
open commonage, the whole people might fairly plead,
per contra, their gift of that unearned increment of
value, which was admittedly so effective everywhere
in the other direction.
A New Order of Eank — National and International.
E-ank was to be on personal basis, the hereditary to die out. —
Author, chap, i., etc.
The altered conditions of society had brought upon
us, by this time, a decided change in the national
sentiment in respect to social precedence and public
rank. Alas ! that it must no longer be that " Eng-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 193
land loves a lord," if there be nothing else than the
title in his lordship. In the old times, when the
mass of the people existed in ignorance, poverty, and
degradation, the headship of the country, and its
property as well, were easily secured by a comparative
few, who formed a hereditary monarchy and nobility.
But the people have since advanced to more equality
of condition with those thus originally and hereditarily
above them ; and the tendency has consequently been
to disparage the hereditary element, and advance that
of real and personal quality.
A somewhat odd mixture, arising out of the past
combination of the new with the old idea, now pre-
sented itself to the reforming mind of the country.
The Public Eank of the time might be viewed as of
four distinguishing kinds. First, there were those
who stood solely and entirely upon personal deserts,
who mostly led the world's business and the world's
science, but whose rank was usually of the humblest.
Indeed, the energetic and commanding minds, by
which the world's progress was mainly carried on,
were usually the least of all represented there.
Second, those who, although not conspicuous in the
personal element in particular, were of noticeable
wealth, or had bestowed some of their means upon
some noticeable public object. Third, those who had
the happy luck to be in prominent office on the
occasion of national events, such as a royal visit or
birth or marriage, or the opening of a park, a bridge,
a railway, or other chance-medley of the progress of
their time. And lastly came the culmination of rank
in those who had no concernment whatever ^with
personal quality or services or national progress, >vho
o
194 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
simply inherited their status, and who, if personal
merits hapjDened to be originally in their case, ac-
counted themselves all the higher in rank the further
they were removed from such originating and raw
personality.
Here, then, was a royal medley of rank, which,
with every succeeding year, was less in accord with
the common-sense of the day, and beginning at last
to be suggestive of the ludicrous. The greatest
intellects and chief moving spirits of the time stood
in the same rank with nobodies ; or the latter, as
it chanced, might be the men of rank, and the
former not. When these former began very gene-
rally to decline to enter such indiscriminate com-
pany, the time had come for sweeping away the
entire old fabric. A great national order of merit
was instituted in its place, w^hose positions were
the fruit solely of personal qualities and deeds, and
whose gradations constituted the sole public rank of
the country. And, again, when the jDrogress in
countries outside of us, taking the same direction as
our own, had also followed us in the like new institu-
tion of public rank, there succeeded an international
agreement, by which the great minds of each country
were marshalled forth into international prominence,
and were thus constituted into an international
nobility.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 195
Woman's Position in Society.
Yellowly was a strong advocate of woman's rights. — Author,
chap. i.
In the more delicate needs of life, the one sex being ex-
posed to the other was never without sacrifice. — Ihid, chap. i.
We had inherited from our founder, continued the
president, a care for the honour and the interests of
woman, and a charge to give to her all possible help,
in her battle with society for equality of rights with
the man. Well, the woman has fought her battle,
and has gained it ; and society is all the better for
the victory, in the interests ahke of its business, its
science, and its higher social concernments. He went
on to say that, if the moral fibre of society had been
distinctly strengthened by that reformed university
life, to which allusion has been already made, yet
further and yet more directly was this the case in all
those educational and other arrangements, which now
freely permitted the ministration of woman in all the
delicate duties of her own sex's needs. The husband
•of to-day would as soon think of exposing the grace
and purity of his young wife, in the honours and
pangs of her maternity, to the indiscriminate gaze
of the streets, as of exposing her to any one not of
her own sex within the hallowed precincts of her
chamber. In this direction alone there was thus an
appreciable step of moral elevation along society's
entire line.
196 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Aspects and Prospects — Our Country and the
World, in this the Twenty-first Century.
We look back, continued the president, upon more
than a century of the life of an universally educated
j)eople. What wondrous advance since the end of the
nineteenth century ! Then, indeed, was the day of
small things compared with now. But probably our
great grandchildren, a century hence, may find equal
cause, in their own still greater progress, to speak
alike disparagingly of our day. Comj)aring the actual
present with the actual past, no feature is more
striking, or more inspiring, than the great increase of
our population. On this question much speculative
guess-work of the past has been set entirely at rest by
the facts of the present. We do not starve in Eng-
land, although our country is already far on to being
covered with human beings and dwelling houses,
instead of i^resenting the open fields of preceding
centuries. America and Australasia pour in upon us
ample food supply, conveyed quickly and cheaply in
the huge shipping of our time.
A vast and busy mass steps now to the front of
society. There is no longer the feature of a hereditary
poor class or hereditary lower class, any more than
of a hereditary upper class. The lower class of to-day
is the aggregate of individuals who fall comparatively
short in ability, industry, and character. The uni-
versal activity, alike of hand and mind, in our great
populations, gives us our unprecedented pace of pro-
gress. That progress takes remarkable directions, as,.
for instance, in our practice, now extending over all
the country, of interposing the protection of a glass-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 197
roof between us and our too often wet, cold, and
inhospitable skies. And this practice, which is ex-
tending also outside of us, is abeady mitigating the
conditions and increasing the resources of life in the
world's higher latitudes. There is akeady, in fact,
the promise of i)opulation literally from pole to pole.
We have long ago found our way, in mere geographical
progress, to either jDole, and countless travellers have
poised themselves in imagination exactly upon either
axial extremity beneath their feet. The question
approaches of even a crowded permanent residence
in such regions, when our race, in years or centuries
to come, has been still more crowded out of the more
temperate latitudes.
Another remarkable direction of modern progress
is that of the land into the sea. We have, most
effectually, in this respect, turned the tables upon our
old enemy. We are now everywhere busy filling up
our foreshores, estuaries, and ocean shallows. Already
we have, in this way, added thousands of square miles
to too narrow Old England. Already the spacious
and once troublesome and dangerous sandbanks of
the Thames' mouth are our national terra firma,
and are being covered with warehouses and shops,
mansions and small gardens. Already we have bridged
the comparatively shallow water between south-west
Scotland and north-east Ireland. Abeady our great
neighbours of Germany and France, extending now,
as they respectively do, over little Holland and little
Belgium of old time, co-operate powerfully with us
towards a future land junction, by filling up the
North Sea shpJlows. Already, in this way, have we
a broad dam, with its multiple-lined railway, con-
198 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
necting Dover and Calais; while the multitudinous
shipping of all countries, propelled now with the quiet
rapidity of electric energy, is diverted through the
great inter-ocean canal of France on the one side, or
our own great Thames and Channel canal on the
other.
The recent discovery of cross-electric power has
precipitated us, said the president, into quite a new
world of science and resource. Just when we seemed
threatened with an increase of population that is to
leave no room upon the world's surface for natural
food-growing, this great discovery comes to our help,
to turn out the required food, rapidly and cheaply,
from the narrow quarters of our chemical laboratories.
The cross-electric, further, in creating the great
modern diamond factory (for any coal, shale, or cinder
rubbish may now be rapidly and cheaply converted
into hardest and purest diamond), has advanced power-
fully alike our scientific, artistic, and material life.
The ladies, indeed, under this new tide of cheap and
boundless supply, at once turned up their fair noses
in contempt for what they now designated as the
vulgar flare of their previously most prized of jewels ;
but telescopic and microscopic science secured their
great advance, while our window-light, and countless
other necessities, aids, and comforts of life, came in,
more or less, for the same.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 199
Our Empire as it emerged into this Twenty-
first Century.
Is a future Gibbon to illustrate another " Decline and Fall"?
— Author, chap. ix.
There arises, said the president, in conclusion, but
one shade over the general brightness of this picture.
The great British Empire, of which, covering, as it
did, one-ninth part of the habitable globe, our
ancestors of the nineteenth century were so justly
proud, is now, so far, at least, as regards the whole
of this grand area and its advanced population, a
thing of the past, and alive only in the page of
history. Seeing, however, that all international war
has long ago come to an end over the w^orld, the
break up of a power that might have been unchal-
lengeably the greatest on the earth, has happily, on
that account, proved the less dangerous to its people,
and in that view also, possibly, the less mortifying.
Nevertheless a pang of national agony shot through
us all, during the past century, when we did actually
realize, albeit too late for remedy, that, as the result
of long-previous easy-going political negligence, the
grand old empire had gone to pieces. Indeed, but for
the self-condemning conviction that all parties and
classes amongst us had been much alike to blame for
the national disaster, there might not have been
wanting, to the intensity of first regrets, a revolu-
tionary tendency towards other forms of government
which had happily proved so much more successful in
banding firmly and permanently together the com-
ponent sections of another great empire of the EngHsh
race.
200 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
As we still embrace great India, as well as many
various other places of the like mixed dependency
character over the world, which, with that world's
general advance, give us collectively already a popula-
tion and commerce far beyond those even of the
undivided empire at its highest united attainment, we
are fain to gather crumbs of comfort, and to dwell
upon the greatness still left to us. But we have
definitively lost the vast areas of Northern America,
Southern Africa, and Australasia. The}^ all remain
perfectly friendly to us, as indeed does all the rest
of the world ; and at, and for long after, the time of
parting, there was a profuse outpouring of loyal
allegiance to the old associations and memories, with
vows of eternal brotherhood, and so on. But none
the less the substance has departed from beneath the
shadow, and the great nationality is dissipated.
The untoward event happened in this way. Our
colonies, as they became important and self-support-
ing, during the nineteenth century, demanded, and
were cordially conceded, the constitutional or self-
government of the parental type. They were then
IDcrfectly satisfied, and perfectly loyal, and nothing
seemed wanting to harmony on either side. But
separative elements and causes gradually arose, with
the many differing circumstances of all these remote
and practically self-governed societies. While they
were still respectively, and even collectively, small, as
compared with their overshadowing parent, and still
moved by home rather than by local or colonial
influences and remembrances, there w^ere no great
difficulties in sufficiently preserving at least an entire
legal unity to the empire ; for in all important colonial
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 201
questions, having imperial bearing, the home deci-
sions were then always cordially acceded to. But as
the colonies grew to greatness, they were ever less
and less dis^Dosed to be thwarted by the imperial
check in independently pursuing what seemed to them
their suitable course. They had secured, from the
first, the free disposal respectively of their own tariffs.
But afterwards they began to seek inter-tariff and
other independent arrangements, foreign as well as
colonial, outside of them ; and in various other ways
their tendency was ever to trench more and more upon
imperial treaty arrangements, and imperial rights,
and legal and political consistencies.
What had been wanting all through this under-
mining process, and what had not been timely con-
sidered and remedied while still possible, was a firm
and equal political union, by the due representation
of all parts of the empire. This being wanting, any
exercise of the imperial check upon a colony had
always, of necessity, rather the untoward aspect of the
command of a superior to the subject, than that of
the decision of a whole united nationality ; and thus
the larger colonies, as though by an inevitable in-
stinct, began to indicate resistance. When at length
one of the greatest of these "dependencies," as we
were still ominously calling them, in a vital question
of imperial policy and consistency, declined flatly to
be " coerced" by the home decision, it was seen that
the cord had at length snapped asunder.
We had already, at this time, passed into the
twentieth century. Up to the end of the nineteenth
unity seemed still possible, and a Bismarck hand
might still have secured it. But the EngHsh Bis-
202 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
marck was not then forthcoming, and so the great
empire fell. We had to content om-selves with having
enriched history on behalf of some future Gibbon,
who was to describe the decline and fall of yet one
more of the world's great empires. We had no longer
indeed the dreads of war to cause us to regret that
the powerful co-operating arms of our colonies were lost
to us ; but, in other respects, our shorn condition
came home but too plainly to our national pride..
The greatest and most ]progressive empire of modern
times had crumbled to pieces in our hands, and with
additional disappointment were we aware that our
transatlantic cousinhood were now indisputably to-
pass us, in assuming the first position in the English
speech. In short, we had been trifling with the
grandest position in the world, and we had irrevocably
lost it.
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 203-
CHAPTEE X.
THE TWENTY-SECOND CENTURY : ITS ILLUSTRATION BY
OUR SOCIAL WAYS.
Yellowly would have every one married, Reed every one
occupied, in the world, society being thus at its best. — Author,
chap. i.
I PROPOSE to illustrate the twenty-second century, on
which we now enter, by reference to one subject only,
but yet a subject so important and comprehensive as
to involve very much else in human relations, and
thus to approve itself a good characteristic illustra-
tion. In short, I propose to treat of marriage, in
some of the chief features which that social condition
itself, as well as the various ways and preparations
for attaining it, presented in the twenty-second
century. The progress of the world may perhaps be
quite as characteristically show^n in this particular
direction, as in any other. Given, youth and the two
sexes, there will always be marrying and giving in
marriage. Let us, then, see how they managed this
important business of human life in the century which
we have now reached.
204 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Marriage in the Twenty-second Century.
The habit ahke of early marriage and of universal
marrying, had been our increasing social feature since
the great educational and other reforms that charac-
terized the closing nineteenth and opening tv/entieth
century. Every young 'man and every j^oung woman
looked forward, as matter of course, to being a hus-
band or a wife ; and each, upon due occasion, took
his or her own case in charge in the most methodical
and business way, and with altogether undisguised
purpose. But, in order to be suitably mated, the
great object on either side was not merely the ordinary
family or domestic happiness, which was mostly a
sure enough prospect in those fairly well-ordered
times ; still less was it anything about pecuniary
settlements, that prime consideration of some previous
centuries. What the expectant wife might possibly
be even more concerned about than mere domestic
bliss, was the prospect of an active and successful
joint participation in the current science or business
of the time, so that life might be spent to some
purpose, and the departing s^^irit, at the end, feel
that, during the occupation of the body, there had not
been a mere useless cumbrance of the busy ground.
Deathbeds might thus be at times a sad but not
unedifying spectacle, when they were disturbed by a
sense of irrevocably wasted time. The strength,
freshness, and comparative leisure of youth were in
general diligently given by either sex, to lay a solid
foundation of acquirements for the pursuits of maturer
life. Even diet, as well as exercise, began to be
universally regulated so as to result in the greatest
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 205
powers of mind and body. The young couples, when
mated with due regard to suitability, w^ould complete
together, with an inspiring mutual stimulus, their pre-
paratory career, and then enter with mutual ardour
upon the special study or vfork of their life, which was
sometimes the same for both, sometimes different.
Marriage was thus looked forward to as the era for
entering upon many-sided activities and much accom-
panying satisfaction and happiness. The stronger
sex, as was fitting and proper, then and always, still
assumed the lead in matrimonial preliminaries. But
if it was the young man who most usually first ap-
proached, then wooed and won the young maid ; yet
the latter, upon any special circumstances or emer-
gencies, or upon the confines of a critical age, would
be just as little disposed as the masculine sex to
waste her opportunities, or let slip her particular
likings, and thus, from any over-delicacy or untimely
hesitation, wrong her life-prospects in so time-pressing
and momentous a business.
But these early marriages, and this busy married
life, if they produced much happiness, produced also
large — indeed very large — families. The progress in
this direction was truly quite as marked as in any
other, in the general advance of our country and of
the world. Society at large was confronted by the
one special problem of ever-increasing mouths ever
agape for food. But over against this one costly
responsibility of the time, society could set many
economies resulting from the diligence and good order
of married life. The two sexes, meeting each other
freely in business walks, formed early attachments,
which had a restraining effect upon the passion or
206 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
extravagance of youthful inclination. The gentler
sex had, by this time, successfully fought its way into
all of the world's work that was suitable to it ; and
thus the engaged young couple would pile up together,
from the proceeds of their respective industry, the
sufficient preliminary fund for their beginning their
joint life. Society could thus be assured that the
prospective increase of population was subject to
such concurrent guarantees for a full set-off in in-
dustry, frugality, and other social good demeanour,
as to leave society largely the gainer.
State Intervention in Marriage.
The Government of the day did not deem it either
beneath their dignity, or a matter outside of their
duty, to countenance and even to promote this general
attention to suitability in marriage. This was usually
done by precautionary and other needful intimations
issued from the State medical department. We shall
see, fm'ther on, what more was done in this beneficial
supervision, more especially when a public interest
came to be taken in the promotion of international
marriages. The State, indeed, affected no secret that
it also, as well as the parties themselves, was primarily
interested in suitable marriages, and in the highest
health, moral as well as physical, of family life.
We come back to the old saying, " As parent, so
offspring." The latter can get only what the other,
at its time, has to give. Parents in bad health must
expect children who will be a trial and trouble to all
concerned. Nor is the moral health less heritable
than the physical. By due intelligent precaution, the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 207
child might be, and indeed ought to be, an advance
upon the parents ; nor was public opinion, about this
time, slow to pronounce, if the result were noticeably
otherwise. A good father with a bad son aroused
unfavourable comment upon the former rather than
the latter ; while to serve out the offending junior by
finally "cutting him off with a shilling" was now
regarded as but scant parental justice and reparation.
Pious parents, troubled with unruly family nests, got
scant public sympathy in this cause-seeking time ;
for there had obviously been either bad parental con-
dition, or else most culpable negligence. Intermittent
parental health, unsteady character, intervals of
devious or doubtful purposes, require all to be intel-
ligently guarded from transmission ; nor can sub-
sequent parental physical restoration, or after refor-
mation or penitence, however personally edifying and
saving, hail backwards to the offspring's like benefit.
The State, as already hinted, did something more
than take only a medical interest in the great and
ubiquitous marriage question. While medical science
was constantly expounding, in language as plain, and
yet as delicately select as the subject would admit
of, those qualities of mind and body which would
unite in the best and happiest marriage, the State
had itself begun to give practical effect to theory, by
intervening in the promotion of suitable unions. Our
statesmen of that day, relieved, as they happily were,
from countless old cares and anxieties, in naval and
military superintendence, criminal jurisdiction, and
ever possible international differences, jealousies, and
general susceptibilities, could not better employ their
resulting official leisure to useful public account. By
208 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
way of publicly exemplifying marriage suitabilities,
certain national selections would be periodically made
of both sexes ; and if these selected suitabilities, thus
theoretically mated, afterwards mutually agreed to
actual marriage, they became, in a certain sense of
social consideration, the State's family, and any
children they might have were to be regarded with
more or less of public concernment. This procedure
was, in fact, no other than a very high-class scientific
experiment, and society was then sufficiently advanced
to so regard and benefit by it. The children of such
State marriages were usually, as was fully expected,
the most perfect of their time. Any other result
would have been as surprising to all, as indeed it
would have been reprehensible to the parties more
immediately concerned.
Marriage Settlements.
The young people of those days, as we have said,
looked well after their own matrimonial interests;
and even the gentle young maiden, however diffident
and filially obedient in all else, took this matter pretty
much into her own hands. The parental experience
and discretion, which had prevailed in former times,
as far at least as regarded pecuniary considerations,,
had but scant tolerance now. '' The settlements," in
their old meaning, had drifted out of the reckoning.
Indeed, from the facility, or rather the absolute
certainty, with which an adequate living could be
earned by due exertion and ability, in those days of
high education and of the universal application of high
art and science to all business life, the energetic and
ambitious young wife was not anxious for a husband
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 209
already well off, and thus deprived of his strongest
stimulant to exertion. On the contrary, she would
rather have suspected and dreaded such a candidate
for her hand and heart, and have preferred one who
was likely to be more free to assist, effectively, her
own exertions towards imprinting their common mark
upon the advancing world, to the credit of their own
name after their departure, as well as that of the
family they hoped to leave behind them.
The love-sick youth of the other sex must thus,
for his part, be careful of allusions to wealth or
family, or other such non-personal matters, seeing
they were apt to be viewed, by the critically interested
fair one, merely as excuses for, or symptoms of, an
idling tendency. His great-grandfather's merits,
however overshadowing, could not possibly stand for
his own. The personal had, in the very practical
common sense of the time, become the sole con-
sideration. The process of courtship was, indeed,
one of the prominent high arts of the time, the grand
object on either side being to find out each other
sufficiently upon all important personal points. It
was only when each was thus entirely satisfied with
the other, that the final agreement was ratified, and
a joint life entered upon, which thus gave all good
promise of mutual suitability, as regarded alike per-
sonal happiness and public usefulness.
Divorce in the Twenty-second Century.
Yes, alas ! with all its advance at this time, society
had not emerged from this social necessity. Divorce
features, however, had been very appreciably changed,
210 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
and been freed from most of the grosser aspects of
former centuries. Wives had not much complaint
now of cruel or sensual husbands. Their wrongs
were of a much more refined character, and one that
was more accordant w^ith the delicate sentiment, and
the high aims, hopes, and expectations of that age.
The following two instances of divorce suits wdll form
a sufficiently characteristic illustration, more espe-
cially as these cases, both famous in their time in
this century, assisted respectively in establishing
authoritative precedents for subsequent times.
Two Typical Instances.
First case. — A youth, heretofore of promise, who,
in the severer part of his university ordeal, had un-
guardedly addicted himself to the injurious, dirty, and
then all but exploded habit of tobacco-smoking, had
afterwards also fallen in love with a different and far
more worthy object of affection. But, perfectly aware,
as he could not fail to be, that the public sentiment
as to his unfortunate habit, and more especially the
firm stand which, as by tacit agreement in matri-
monial relations, the other sex had made against it,
for more than a century past, would give him butj
slight chance in his proposed courtship, he not only]
at once laudably abandoned his smoking, but by aj
course of thorough medical purgation he successfully]
eliminated every possible trace of his old infirmity.!
Eejoicing in the strength of new purposes, and a new!
life and manhood, he now introduced himself to the]
fair object of his hopes, and was duly successful ii
his suit.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 211
The honeymoon, and even some further interval,
had passed over with mutual and unexceptionable
happiness, when, alas ! the old habit began once
more to creep over its victim. The alarmed and
aggrieved wife, after a sad struggle between love for
her husband and abhorrence of his vile habit, to-
gether with all the altered prospects of her whole
life, through this health-injuring, time-wasting, and
in every way anti-aesthetic practice, was persuaded,
under due approval of her legal advisers, and as
her last available resource, to bring her action of
divorce.
The learned judge commented on the unusual
clearness of the case. The wife's sacred vows were
to the man himself, not to the man plus the tobacco.
It was a case of divided affection, where agreement
had been for undivided affection ; while the victimized
wife had been designedly, and by legal fraud, kept
in ignorance of conducing circumstances prior to the
matrimonial agreement. Had the wife been duly
apprised beforehand of the bad tendency in question,
her legal remedy was utterly gone, she having know-
ingly accepted all risks. Or had the vicious habit
arisen only after marriage, she was in equal depriva-
tion of remedy — nay, even more in this latter case,
for the usual commanding influence of a good wife
would seem in such case to have been at fault.
Clearly there had been a legally constructive fraudu-
lent concealment of facts that were most material to
the intended marriage, and the court must therefore
pronounce for a divorce.
Second Case. — The other case, as the judge, in
effect, said at the time, was not one whit less clear.
212 &. THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
A wife had ascertained, but not until after marriage,
that her husband had been possessed of considerable
property ; and, what was to be regarded as still worse
for his prospects, it was means inherited and not self-
made. In consec[uence of such ample pre -provision,
he had shown but slight disposition to enter with due
zest and vigour upon the world's work, and his poor
and humiliated wife was in consequence in utter
despair at her prospects. The case was aggravated
by the indolent fellow keeping an elegant and luxurious
carriage, in which, with all the latest and best energy-
locomotive adaptations, he wasted many precious
hours ; and he had even repeatedly tried to seduce
his virtuous and high- aiming wife into the same
ignoble waste of time.
The noble-minded wife, after a protracted endurance,
hoping still against all hope, at length, and most,
reluctantly, brought her action. The judge com-
mented upon the very high importance of this case
to the advanced civilization of the time. He pictured
the young wife, ardent in the honourably ambitious
hope of a successful life of activity and usefulness,
realizing, after marriage, that all her brightest ex-
pectations were thwarted, checkmated, utterly wrecked,
by an idling and useless husband. No doubt hus-
bands of unusually superior natures could surmount
the obstacles in question, and be, perhaps, just as
active, mind and body, with wealth as without it.
But as that was by no means the ordinary experience,
a fact so material to the matrimonial agreement, and
to matrimonial prospects, ought, in all fairness, to
be made known beforehand ; otherwise the contract
was simply null and void. After a brief but emphatic
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 213
assertion of the true justice of that view, and sym-
IDathetic allusion to the fresh chance such justice
afforded to the unhappy wife yet to retrieve the
blasted prospects of her life, the learned judge,
amidst the hardly suppressed applause of the whole
court, pronounced for the divorce.
A New "International" in this Twenty-second
Century.
The term " International," three centuries earlier,
was wont to call up chiefly a grim vision of class war
and bloodshed, and the general upset of society.
That term now carried a very different meaning.
So soon as the various peoples of the civilized world
had fully realized that all fears of mutual war were
finally done with, a mutual trafficking, and mutual
personal intercourse set in, with a cordiality, and
upon a scale, which were altogether beyond precedent.
Our young men, after completing their education, and
just before settling down to life's regular vocation,
would make a short visiting tour amongst neighbour-
ing societies in Europe or across the Atlantic. Indeed
they went, by-and-by, gradually much further afoot ;
for, during this century in particular, our Anglo-
German race had almost everywhere overspread the
world from equator to either pole, in their successful
colonizing enterprise. These various outside visits
were cordially reciprocated to us by the youths of the
other countries.
Upon this practice there was gradually grafted
another. The respective States began to issue, to
their respective young excursionists, duly accrediting
214 A THOUSAND TEARS HENCE.
passports or letters of general introduction, which
would give them free ingress abroad to the best
society. These letters were more than a mere form ;
they were the result of proper and careful inquiry
and evidence as to character and attainments. There
were thus, of course, great facilities for the meeting
of the elite of the sexes, and there was a charm of
novelty and piquancy in the whole case which helped
much to promote the many life agreements that were
the consequence. In short, our young adventurer
most commonly returned with a foreign wife ; while
the State, backed by medical science, gave no un-
hesitating apxDroval of this most genial international
habit.
But after a time this practice took a new and still
enlarging direction, and a direction which was
eventually more specially associated with the term
" international." The practice, in fact, now become
general with the one sex, at length extended to the
other. At first, of course, the excursionists had been,
without exception, of the stronger sex. The bare idea
of any young lady embarking on such a cruise, un-
mistakably, as it must have been interpreted, in
search of a husband, seemed quite intolerable to the
proper delicacy of the sex. But it is marvellous how
good common-sense, as to the actual needs and wants
and reasonable desires of life, comes at last to prevail.
As regarded the young men, there was soon no afiec-
tation of disguise that the main object was a nice
foreign wife. Was the other sex really less interested
on the same subject ? Evidently the woman's rights
question was to come up once more here. As year
succeeded year, opinion seemed to get riper, and
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 215
female courage stronger, on behalf of the new right
and privilege ; and the only question at last was, as
to which country would be the first to launch its
fair- sex invasion into the open and tem^Dting field of
the others.
There was evident preparation in this new direction
amongst more than one of our neighbours, not to
mention the social heavings within ourselves. If our
English young maidens lacked the courage to be them-
selves the first to break the ice, our country was, at all
events, honoured as the place to which the interesting
first experiment was directed. There was, in fact, in
this matter, so characteristic of the times, an interval
of high curiosity and expectation. Failing our own
fair sex making the first attempt, we were looking
rather in the direction of old blood relationship across
the Atlantic, where many millions of the ruddy young
life and beauty of Canada were already in perceptible
ferment on the subject, and where still more millions
of the still more self-assertive and independent-think-
ing maidens of the great States on the southern border
seemed not less bent upon the coming fray. The
Atlantic had now long been easily and rapidly crossed
by great ferries, which resembled, in dimensions and
steadiness, rather a considerable floating town or
territory, than the old and superseded ships and
steamers, which the wild waves played with at their
will two or three centuries before. There was, there-
fore, little difficulty or delay nowadays on the score of
transatlantic distance.
But, after all, the first expedition of fair adven-
turesses came from La belle France, and an ever-
memorable occasion it made for either country. The
216 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
respective Governments had been aroused to take
quite a leading part ; and a countless multitude of
either nationality streamed forth, the one to bid fare-
well, the other to welcome, this new pledge and novel
direction of international union. By this time there
was no longer a Calais-Dover strait. Indeed the
original viaduct, with its railway, thrown across many
years before, had been already widened into a broad
belt of intervening territory ; while further north and
south respectively, other like encroachments had been
also successfully made upon the oceanic domain.
While the long and well-crammed train is being
drawn up at the half-way international boundary, and
its most elegant and precious freight is being trans-
ferred to the charge of the committee of English
matrons officially appointed for the purpose, let us
make a few further and explanatory remarks upon
this new and extending international custom.
These lively missions to, or invasions of, each
other's country, soon took, even with the gentler sex,
the form of national rivalry and challenge. Each
country not only gave, as we have seen, accrediting
passports to its youthful representatives, but grew
more and more careful to select the very best of the
youth for the purpose ; and thus a high national
interest was excited, before which the old horse-racing,
cricketing, and such like, paled almost to insignifi-
cance. Thus the female accession to these excursions
fell to be dealt with, and even, if possible, still more
strictly, in the like discriminating way ; and Erance,
we may be sure, had put forth, on this first occasion,
her full strength of beauty and accomplishment.
There was yet another curious result of this highly
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 217
characteristic international rivalry. When the one
country sent forth its choicest youth of the one sex, it
could not be long ere the other country would, as
matter of course, feel impelled to meet the implied
challenge by some equivalent encountering display of
the other sex. And thus a practice obtained of the
visited country having in readiness a number of the
opposite sex about equal to that of the visitors, and
selected, as we need hardly add, with due diligence
and adequate discrimination. At official receptions,
arranged for the purpose, these elite of the two sexes
were mutually introduced ; and, as might have been
expected, the end of it was that, in most cases, the
young men did not fail to find wives to tlieir taste,
nor the young maids * husbands. But the curious
result alluded to was more particularly this, that any
who might happen to return unmated had presumably
failed to encounter excellence equal to their own,
and were thus enabled to bring their superiori-
ties safely back for the good of their own kith and
kin. When the female sex entered these lists, of
course this view of the case was still further enforced
by considerations of gallantry. There was, therefore,
always the greater triumph to their country, the
larger the proportion of its fair ones who came back
unsatisfied and unwed.
History has told us that of this famous, and, in all
senses of the word, virgin French expedition, not one
fair member returned as she came, and thus certain
expectations of French triumph were signally dis-
appointed. This, however, was by no means the
uniform result; for after the first novelty wore off,
and this kind of marital adventure became quite a
218 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
common occurrence, even amongst the fair sex, con-
siderable bands would return with still uncaptm^ed
hearts, to be welcomed with triumphant acclamation
by their compatriots, and afterwards, most likely, to
be eagerly sought after at home as the proud pos-
sessors of unmatchable superiorities. But there was
one remarkable instance of the same complete result,
which happened not very long after this first case,
and which comprised such exceptional and stirring
features, as to be not unworthy also of a place in our
record.
The case in question concerned Italy, which country
had not yet sent forth its first army of fair and
foraging maidens, even after most other countries,
including our own, had repeatedly set the example.
We, for instance, had already thus invaded this same
backward Italy, in common with other places. There
was something not entirely explicable in the matter ;
for a long roll of Italian beauty was understood to be
both ready and willing, and seemed restrained only
by a mysterious official pressure. But no one outside
had susj)ected the real cause and motive, until early
one fine Italian morning our ambassador at Eome
telephoned our Government in haste and alarm, to
the effect that he had just then, reliably, albeit sur-
reptitiously, ascertained, that we were almost on
the very eve of being visited by such unprecedented
numbers, and such a strictly selected excellence of
Italian maidenhood, as made it utterly impossible for
us, with mere ordinary preparation, to escape grievous
national defeat.
The surface, to all appearance, indicated nothing
unusual. The Italian Government had already trans-
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 219
mitted to ours the usual courtesy notice, as though
for quite an ordinary visitation ; and they had done
this with an ostensible calmness, even almost in-
difference, as though nothing in particular were in
the wind; while, instead of that, a furious tornado
was already well-nigh at our very doors. But our
measures were instantly taken ; and as Italy had so
successfully kept her own counsel, so did we, and
even with still more success. We had out, at once,
agencies everywhere over the country, to gather in
the elite of our youth. We decided upon our tactical
course. So soon as we could learn the exact number
of the enemy, we draughted off an exactly equal force,
the very choicest of the choice, and thus, in readiness
and full confidence, our authorities awaited battle.
We completely hoodwinked the watchful expectancy
of the Italian ambassador in London, so that no
warning whatever had passed to his masters out-
side. As the day of departure drew on, the Italian
authorities were hardly troubled to conceal their
approaching triumph ; for it seemed to them now
impossible for England, in the brief remaining inter-
val, to be duly prepared. Venerable old Kome, with all
its millions of population, was in high fete on that
memorable day, as the long and crowded trains
carried off Italy's choicest flowers to what was deemed
certain victory. The bright and joyous, laughing
and joking occupants, had, however, many a serious
exhortation, parental and general, to reject with be-
coming pride all inferiority, and to assure their
country's triumph by returning, in the largest possible
proportions, with uncaptured hearts.
This famous journey was one continuous succession
220 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
of pleasurable excitement. The universal and some-
what critical circumstances had begun to be known
everywhere, and to arouse the greatest possible
interest. On the way, authorities and people alike,
at the different places the expedition successively
IDassed through, in Italy itself, in Switzerland, in
Germany, in France, gave the excursionists the most
specially cordial greeting. As they approached the
old but exploded Alpine barrier, 'the trains divided,
some to take one or other of the various tunnels, the
others to ascend the various mountain lines, whose
steeps were then easily overcome by the adequate
electric locomotive ap^Dliances of the day. Many of
the lively young travellers^ preferred the grand moun-
tain scenery, which they could comfortably enjoy
beneath the protective over-all glass surrounding.
Indeed, in all the more northern latitudes also, by
this time, the custom was general of enclosing even
the entire railway line with glass, which was either
the ordinary toughened cheap article of the kind,
found to be quite strong enough for all usual emer-
gencies, or, at a trifle more cost, the thin light
diamond sheet, so sparklingly clear, and of such
defiant strength against the hail and tempest that
still characterized our earth's meteorology. The
great work which we, of the twenty-ninth century,
have since accomplished, of filling up the most part
of our ocean surfaces, had not yet advanced so far as
very perceptibly to mitigate the old world's clima-
tologies.
The Italian embassy at London, it is recorded,
had indulged largely in bets, and at heavy odds, upon
the results of their fair countrywomen's mission.
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 221
One-fourth of the whole, one-third, one-half, nay,
even more than all that, were to return as they came,
to the terrible exposure of England's inferiority, as
compared at any rate with triumphant Italy. Betting
in those days did not, however, continue in the
degrading and mercenary form of previous centuries.
The loser of a bet was, at this time, usually bound to
write an article upon any subject whatever which the
winner might prescribe. Upon honour he was bound
also to write without help ; so that these constrained
articles formed a very characteristic literature of the
age, very trying to the writers, and very amusing, at
the least, to every one else. And so the "Bet
Magazines " came in for very general reading, and
formed, in fact, quite a noticeable section of literature.
So soon as business opened, our authorities,
confident in all their arrangements, were ready with
tjieir programme of surprises for the other side. As
surprise the first, we at once intimated that our
numbers would be strictly limited to exactly those of
the other side. Any less confident feeling would have
preferred a larger number on our side, as giving us a
better chance. Again, the options in precedure being
■^ith us, as the challenged party, we at once declared,
as surprise number two, for the Alphabetic course.
This meant no less than that the first or preliminary
introductions, by pairing in the alphabetic order of
the names, would be committed to absolute chance.
This seemed mere blank defiance on our part. The
other, and much more usual mode, as giving better
or freer opportunities to seek out mutual suitability,
was to make the introductions quite general, and thus
leave the young people more entirely to their own
222 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
selections. By our extraordinary course, we were, in
effect, saying, that either side was so perfect through-
out, and thus so equally matched, that any two, taken
at hap-hazard, would prove as suitably mated as any
other two. Those of our own people, who were not
in the secret, quailed visibly at such rashness, and
rampant triumph was already running over the
Italian side. "Whom the gods would destroy they
first turn mad," was in every mind, and upon every
glib tongue in that quarter, and the betting there
went furiously on at any offered odds.
Now the great event of the receptions is opened,
and all eyes are curiously turned, more especially to
where the elite of England is to emerge, in order to
confront that of Italy. The quality of the latter had
been already declared as the long line defiled shortly
before from the arrival platform ; and the enthusiastic
ovation, into which we were impelled on the occasion,
showed all the more clearly the sense of the country's
approaching danger.
The candidates on our side had, until now, been
carefully, and rather mysteriously shrouded from
common view. The Italians were not slow to jump
at a probable reason, and forthwith, even mor^
expectant than before, their betting grew even still
wilder. When the first name in letter A was called
on our visitors' side, and a living form of unsur-
passable grace and beauty came responsively forth
for Italy, every eye at once turned to the opposite
entrance where England was simultaneously to put
in her rival appearance. A buzz of admiring satis-
faction, which immediately passed through the great
assembled company, told that England had not
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 223
proved second-best in the dread encounter, and gave
timely relief to many doubting and anxious minds.
But this was only an individual instance. A legion
lay still behind, and the Italian side was still
undismayed; nor had it still abandoned hope- even
when the entire first letter was played out. But,
alas ! long, long ere Z was reached, their hopes had
fallen to zero. What a harvest in store for the '* Bet
Magazines " of that nationally eventful week !
"We are left to infer that the young couples did
actually settle their mutual affairs by the chance
medley of the alphabetic course. Anyhow, as the
record has told us, every young Italian maiden was
duly robbed of her heart by the young English
brigands of the occasion. Although Italy lost some
expected vainglorying, we are not to doubt that she
contributed largely instead to the brightness, beauty,
and happiness of many English homes.
'224 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
CHAPTEE XL
THE TWENTY-THIRD CENTURY : ITS SOCIAL ASPECTS.
A sanitary project of the future which was entirely my
own. — Author, chap. i.
In this chapter, and for this century, I propose to
confine my illustration, as I have done in the pre-
ceding, to one special subject, but a subject also quite
characteristic of the times we are engaged with. We
have seen how successfully we carried out the resani-
tation, or sanitary reconstruction, of London — an ex-
emplary movement which was promptly followed by
that of most others of our cities and towns, and which
enormously advanced the general physical comfort
and social well-being. Following that great sanitary
step, or rather, in great measure, marching concur-
rently with it, we also successfully effected a great
moral resanitation in a certain section of society,
that, namely, which was connected with crime and
mendicancy. But a much more advanced, and, in-
deed, entirely different ideal of resanitation has been
silently at work all this time ; while we have delayed
mentioning it until now, because the full fruition of
A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE. 225
the work did not appear for these several centuries.
I shall now enter upon this further great step of
society, and call it distinctively —
A Completing Social Eesanitation.
" Honour to whom honour is due." That distin-
guished ancestor of mine, of a thousand years back,
whom I have such repeated occasion to call up in
such long retrospect — the great founder of my house,
and of that great provision trade in which his de-
scendants have ever since been engaged, and who in
this, as well, probably, as countless other matters of
his day, if every one had his due and at its due time,
ought to have been and would have been much more
highly and more publicly appreciated by his genera-
tion,— has left on record how, through his own sole
instrumentality, this remarkable resanitation took its
beginning. Now, indeed, the whole story belongs to
the world's fame. My great ancestor, noticing, on
one occasion, amongst the juvenile street Arabs of
his day — a day when such social spectacles were still
possible in our midst, — certain naturally healthful and
perfect forms, although otherwise rag-covered, soiled,
and totally neglected, the idea occurred to him to
collect together and carefully train all such perfect
forms. They were to be specially brought up in
separate institutions, where they might be duly edu-
cated so as to complete all the rudimentary advan-
tages nature had given them, and thus be sent forth
into the world as a kind of superior race — a natural
nobility — to take, by force of pure personal quality,
their natural lead in society.
Q
226 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
How far my noble-minded and disinterested an-
cestor foresaw all that was ultimately to come of his
novel idea, we are not told. Any way, his originating
movement had very grand results. But he had at
first to fight his battle against universal opposition :
his own wife, as he has amusingly recorded, fight-
ing most vigorously of all against his future fame.
Although unsparing of his own means, progress at
first was slow. But the idea afterwards gained
ground, and, ere its author left the world, he saw
the promise of its substantial success. Indeed, the
subject, very soon after, assumed such importance
as to become a public question, which the State in-
corporated with that of the general education of the
people ; that is to say, the State enjoined a distinctive
drafting out of all young children of perfect health
and form, whose high natural advantages were to be
specially supplemented by all the superior educational
advantages for which they showed themselves capable.
The State looked, by way of reward, to the rearing of
quite a superior class of subjects, and the consequently
increased credit and accelerated advancement of the
country.
At first, of course, only the very poorest classes
submitted to be the objects of this distinctive charity,
for as such it had doubtless commenced; while the
title of " nature's nobility," which was early conferred
upon the new order, had probably no complimentary
intention. But, as generations passed, nature's
nobility began to crop up all through society, and
to exhibit qualities which gave to it commanding
social and intellectual position. To enter the lists of
the new order was no longer a contemptible object,
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 227
and there was a gradual dissociation from connection
with public charity. That latter aspect of the case
had already been suj)erseded, when the resanitated
body had risen to conspicuous dimensions, and already
included many of the most prominent citizens. There
began, on the other hand, a natural tendency towards
a special and separate order — the order, namely, of
perfect sanitude in mind and body. But the ranks
of this order remained always open to the like qualities
from outside ; and at length every one without, who
could pass the due medical ordeal, pressed eagerly
into the ranks of this natural nobility.
Centuries had thus passed, and a painful transition
scene was evidently impending over society. Almost
from the very first, the then despised nature's nobility
had shown a disposition to intermarry amongst them-
selves. And what wonder ! for where else were found
such beautiful S23ecimens of either sex? And now,
when generations and centuries had done their further
work, this custom of restrictive intermarriage became
more and more the practice of the new order. The
inevitable end began at last to heave in sight ; for,
on one side was this new order, which, in all its
vigorous superiority of body and mind, had now
entered upon the full supervision and command of
society ; on the other side a mass of human infirmity,
from which the other section could hardly but feel
increasingly impatient to be free. When those latter
ruling powers not only rejected alliances for them-
selves with this distempered remnant of the old
society, but at last, as a sanitary measure in the
public interest, prohibited marriage amongst all its
membership, the last vestiges of the old condition were
finally to disappear.
228 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
They did disappear accordingly, and thenceforward
we started as, in many respects, a renovated race ;
while other countries, in view of such results, acted
more or less upon our example. An appreciably
greater health and vigour per^^aded all scientific,
business, and general life, which told marvellously on
our national progress. I often wonder even now at
the busy spectacle around me, for doubtless we still
benefit from the renovating effects of that great move-
ment. Take my worthy old father, for instance, who
in spite of nearly a century of years, is yet as early
and as hard at business as the youngest of us, and
earning always a great deal more than he spends.
May Heaven long preserve — may Heaven, as I
dutifully repeat, prosper him to the uttermost !
The Selphnil Family.
Amongst the lingering survivors of those old social
remnants, whose final extinction we have just recorded
was the last representative of one of the great families
of the old times and systems now passed away. This
family was that of the Selphnils. In its high days
of those old times, there had been Dukes of Selphnil,
with great property inheritance ; but when primo-
geniture and entail laws and other artificial family
props had been done away with, and, as the new rule,
every one had to stand or fall by his own qualities and
merits, the Selphnil family fell all behind in the
common race, and, sad to say, its last rej)resentative
died in the Public Charity. All that remained of the
old grandeur was his name. Even that the neighbours
had inappreciatively abbreviated; but while they called
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 229
him only Freddie Selfie, the proper family and bap-
tismal designation was Frederick Adolphus Con-
stantine Maximilian Ferdinand Alphonso Nicholas
Wilhelmus Napoleon Caesar Augustus Tiberius Selphnil.
The great Selphnil family had been more con-
spicuous in these modern than in more ancient times.
There were not so many Selphnils in feudal days.
In tracing back the particular family line now in
question, some trader or banker turns up with a
deal of money ; but the family in after times do not
dwell overmuch upon this fundamental personage.
It little matters, to be sure, whether his name was
Brown, Jones, or Robinson, seeing his descendants
changed it, when, at an early stage, they married
into the Selphnils, and took their name. These
Selphnils, after that accession, with large and en-
tailed estates, became a great and flourishing family.
They could proudly boast that Selphnils were to be
abundantly met with throughout even the very highest
ranks.
The staff and stay of Selphnil greatness was " the
family." The mere individual personality disappeared.
Apart from his family and his nobility, as the first
duke gloried in saying, he himself was nothmg. The
family fortunes were at their height with this first
Duke of Selphnil. There had previously been in
succession, Baron, Viscount, Earl, and Marquis
Selphnil. The great life's aim of the baron had
been to be viscount, of the viscount to be earl, of
the earl to be marquis, and now, from a marquis,
the family ambition, with its traditional instincts,
turns to the dukedom.
But the path, even to such honours, in these com-
230 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
paratively practical and prosaic times, was not always
up to the noble marquis's mind and taste. The
premier of the day, for instance, with whom he must
needs come in contact about this coveted honour,
albeit, happily for the marquis's cause and prospects,
of Conservative politics, was, as the marquis described
him, one Smith, who was not only destitute of the
slightest particle of nobility in his family, but who,
even worse still, seemed indifferent on tliat point, and
whose immediate ancestry, to use the marquis's
dignified family-like expression, for even but a single
step backwards, had actually kept a shop.
To such a premier, then, he, a peer of the realm,
must needs address himself. The said premier was,
first of all, a man of business ; and, in his cordial
reception of the noble marquis, he had at least one
eye upon the large family estates, and the number of
votes that might possibly come of them in times of
need. But there was still one difficulty attending the
noble marquis's application for promotion. What
were the merits ? What could the willing-enough
premier plead, to a critically curious, and not seldom
rather troublesome pubHc, as warrant for the required
step ?
The marquis had to suppress, as he best could, his
indignant sense of this modern method with the noble
and titled classes of society. Were these honours then
to be trucked and trafficked for, as though peerages
were the common articles of a market ? Merits, for-
sooth ! He had thought that a sufficient merit might
have been his being already a marquis, in claiming to
be a duke. In the end. Premier Smith, it is to be
feared, was " the unjust judge " of that occasion with
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 231
his importunate suitor, and perhaps for much the
same reason as swayed his prototype. So the marquis
became Duke of Selphnil.
But this Smith was, after all, an incurably vulgar
fellow, as the following incident, in the duke's own
experience and narrating, would show. A govern-
ment berth had been resolved upon for a young
cadet of the duke's family; and, of course, the
youth's high connections were all duly arrayed in the
duke's application on his behalf; so that he w^as run
in, upon all this recommendatory category, as for
assured victory. But what are the young man's
own qualities ? asked the busy premier, somewhat
abruptly. The duke tartly rejoined that he thought
he had already well answered ^that question. The
applicant, to begin with, was a distant connection
of his own, besides having other nobility relations
on the paternal side, and even on the mother's side
he was But just at this completing climax of
the exposition, the case would appear to have broken
down, between the highly impatient premier on the
one hand, and the highly offended duke on the other.
At any rate the latter then swore that he would plead
for no more cadets before Premier Smith ; and, in-
deed, having now secured his title, he had resolved
to cut that person's further acquaintance.
The duke belonged to the Nowurke branch of the
Selphnils. But the Nowurke Selphnils were quite
distinct from another noble family, that simply of the
Knowurkes, who were also spreading considerably
about this time. The duke rather looked down upon
this latter lot. The two names, he said, sounded alike,
but the spelling detected the true quality.
232 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
Having reached the summit of nobility in his duke-
dom, the duke's further ambition could be gratified
only in the repetition of additional ducal and other
titles. His great aim at last was to pile up all these
upon his already crowded escutcheon. Thus, the name
of any place that had become illustrious the duke
would claim for addition to his category of titles. He
would be earl of this, marquis of that, and duke of the
other. Smith, his old enemy, while still premier, did
not see much need to thwart his political supporter in
that harmless and conveniently fertile direction; and
thus, happily, there came between them, in the end,
well-nigh a reconciliation.
So grand a life must needs be fittingly concluded
by a grand death. The noble duke, in his later
years, turned all his mind to this final family triumph ;
and, accordingly, the splendid funeral, and the grand
monument, upon which was to be emblazoned all the
family titles and greatness, were duly arranged for.
If anything could have added to the proud satisfaction
with which the duke must have gazed back from the
tomb upon that resplendent monument of the titled
glories of his house, it might have been the fact that
another monument, to a different kind of human
greatness, happened to stand over against his own,
and strikingly to contrast its brief inscrij)tion, wholly
destitute as it w^as of allusion to one particle of
family nobility, or even a vestige of the current
national rank, hereditary or personal, with all the
length and fulness of the Selphnil honours.
The inscription on the great duke's grand monument
ran thus : —
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 233
To
THE MOST NOBLE
j^iigiistus GustavTis Frederick Adolphus Ludovicus Nicholas
Alexander Theodore Christian Maximilian Ernest Oscar Con-
stantine William John Henry Edward George Albert Victor
SELPHNIL,
who was fifth Baron, fourth Viscount, third Earl, second
Marquis, and first Duke of Selphnil ; Marquis Laplace and
Diike de Lesseps ; Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquis, and Duke
of Washington ; Duke of Waterloo and Inkerman, of Aphgan-
Robburts and Cairowolseley ; Earl of Arkwright, Jameswatt,
Smeaton and Stephenson ; Marquis of Smithadam, Humeton
and Gibbon ville ; Earl of Siemens and Bessemer, and Duke
of Richardowen, Portdarwin, Huxleyville, and Tyndalton.
Also, Selphnil MacSelphnil, and the MacSelphnil of that Ilk
in North Britain ; and Selphnil O' Selphnil, and the O'Selphnil
of Bally Selphnil, in the Sister Isle, and territorially affiliated
to the O'Shillelaghs of Donnybrook, in the most ancient peerage
of Ireland.
The other monument above alluded to was in-
scribed as follows : —
To
CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN,
Fellow of the Royal Society ;
Author of " The Origin of Species ; "
Founder of his age's accepted Theory of the
Evolution of all Organic Being.
234 A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE.
CHAPTEK XII.
THE TWENTY-FOURTH CENTURY: ITS RELIGIOUS ASPECTS.
The reasonableness of our own religious ways and views may
be best judged by transferring them to some other and opposing
creed, in order to see how they looked in that changed light. —
Author, chap. i.
When certain parties laughed at the Pope, the Pope said
that people ought not to laugh at Religion. — Author, chap. xv.
This chapter, like its two predecessors, is to be
devoted to one particular feature, but which, as in
these other cases, will be found also illustrative of the
time at which we have now arrived. In this chapter,
then, I propose to deal with religious aspects. After
five centuries of retrospect, how fared the various
religious bodies of our country ? How fared our great
national Church, reconstructed, as we had left it, upon
the comprehensive basis of Scripture ? What were
the religious aspects of the world generally ?
The Great Mormon Church.
The future. Gray would assert, belonged to Mormon truth.
Might he but see what his Church would be five hundred or a
thousand years hence ! — Author, chap. i.
The Mormon Church had by this time taken the first
position in its original stronghold, the great United
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 235
States of America, and from that centre its churches
and missions extended conspicuously over all the rest
of the world. The head of the Church at the time in
question was Pope-President Brigham XIV., who
wielded his vast spiritual sway at the great Mormon
metropolis, St. Brigham, formerly Salt Lake City,
from whence, periodically, the Holy Fathers of the
Church, of most blessed memory to all believers,
issued their encyclicals, not merely urhi et orbi, like
another erroneous and once pretentious Church, but
in these days of science as Eeligion's handmaid, alike
to the city, the world, and the universe. Such being
the great Mormon standpoint, let us glance at one of
Pope Brigham's encyclicals of this time. After an
outpouring of blessing and parental love over all the
faithful, he surveyed, in strains of wrathful pity, the
whole outside Gentile world. How blessed a thing,
he said, if the reign of God could be substituted all
over the earth, instead of the reign of man ! Must
they not continue to aim at this most blessed attain-
ment ! An inscrutable Providence still tolerates
religious error and irreligious agency in the world.
It was not for them to presume to imitate such
mysterious indifference. They must ever be ready,
either by help of the blessed Danites, or by other
available agency, to secure the whole earth for the
blessed Saints' use, to the due honour of God, and
the full maintenance of His Truth.
Its Trials.
Their Holy Church had its trials. There was con-
stant and cruel persecution, at the instance of an
opposing or indifferent secular arm, in hindering and
236 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
circumscribing the Church in her divinely appointed
domain of morals and religion, and denying her right,
as the superior authority, to define the line which
should separate the inferior secular power. Not only
all over the world, but even in our own holy city St.
Brigham, Eoman, Greek, Anglican, miscellaneous
Protestant, and countless other religious errors, are
freely permitted to be taught, to the great distress
of our loving heart, which would have all to be saved,
and even by force if necessary, through Mormon truth.
Then, again, there is an accursed so-called " liberal "
element in our midst — a camp of traitors, whom the
Church, but for the yearnings of her too loving heart
even over disobedient and rebellious children, would
and should have long ago expelled. Would not the
political vote, which the Church could command, if all
her members were but faithful, have long ago rectified
many of her wrongs ? Withal, however, the Church
had also
Its Triumphs.
He would first turn to the divinely inspired infalli-
bility of the earthly head of the Church, the prophet,
priest, and revelator, who alone received Heaven's
instructions. When profane objectors outside asked
how the successors to our holy and blessed but
fallible Joseph were infallible and therefore greater
than their original, we easily answered such theo-
logical error and confusion by the plain statement
that "the infallibility of the successor of Joseph is
a tradition from the beginning of the Mormon faith."
And when it was again helplessly asked from outside
how all this could be known, we were promptly ready
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 237
to rejoin that " The Church itself can and does know
its own evidence and its own tradition." The Church
is thus above mere history.
And again, spite of all trials, was not this, in many
respects, a blessed time to the Church ? Were not
the " holy relics " of old but blessed and still fragrant
saints the objects of the daily worship of the faith-
ful ? Were there not miraculous apparitions still all
about us, the holy and blessed old St. Joseph and
St. Brigham appearing and reappearing to many?
If these divinely sent apparitions were now vouchsafed
only to young children and some few women, that
was but a fitting rebuke and punishment to the un-
belief of the age. It was indeed sad to think that
the many striking miracles, so well established in
the Church's earlier traditions, had now ceased in
consequence of unbelief. But the Church's triumph
was none the less for the simple believing minds of
its true flock. The unquestioning faith of young
children had been especially rewarded by miraculous
apparitions — apparitions, too, which, in an exemplary
way, it could hardly be doubted, had been of purpose
made punitively invisible to the scepticism of more
advanced years.
Mormon truth coming direct from Heaven, through
its inspired earthly head, consequently he alone was
infallible upon earth. In two grand instances in
particular, in the Church's experience, was this direct
revelation triumphantly and most publicly manifested
to the whole world.
1. When, in our earlier history, the secular power
persisted in interfering with our "peculiar domestic
institution," and, forsooth, in describing as human
238 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
immorality that which, under heavenly guidance, our
most Holy Church's authorities had sanctioned ; and
just as the Church, to all mere human seeming, was
about to succumb to this gross secular attack, a
direct revelation, just at the critical time, saved her.
That revelation, as we all know, was to the effect
that the sealing of the woman by material and con-
summating marriage was unnecessary, spiritual mar-
riage being sufficient, nay, even preferable, as being
less sensual, as well as a simpler and higher course.
In one moment our devouring enemies were utterly
baffled in their machinations, and the Church's
triumph complete.
2. The great controversy about " The Language of
Heaven " must ever be an inspiring recollection of
the Church, as being conspicuously one amongst her
many, triumphs. The Holy Father, Brigham the
First, of far-off but ever blessed memory, in address-
ing some foreign- speaking emigrants, then recently
arrived in Utah, had exhorted them to acquire the
English language, for English, he added, is the lan-
guage of heaven. This remarkable statement passed
comparatively unnoticed at the time. But after the
Church had passed through the definitions of the
infallibilities of her great earthly Head, the high im-
port of this revealed and recorded utterance of the
prophet, priest, and revelator of Mormon truth could
not possibly be longer overlooked. Here then, truly,
was a wondrous fact, given to the world through the
Church. Where and how could mere science have
attained such knowledge ? And yet this said science
was forthwith busy with difficulties, and brought on a
controversy that required all the bracing up of true
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 239
faith. But, in this memorable controversy, while the
fainter hearts amongst us at first hesitated, faith
plunged boldly in, and pushed as boldly on to the
victorious end.
At its outset, and for long after, the controversy
was a fierce one, for science, in her blind self-reliance,
had asserted that English was not even an ancient
language, much less, as the language of heaven, the
original tongue. But Heaven, which surely knew
best, had answered difi'erently ; and thenceforward
the Church, by her whole education and ability,
defended and proved Heaven's answer. Soon the
literature of the sacred subject became, on the Church's
side at least, a huge library of itself; while the
Church, as she was justly entitled, held in con-
temptuous disregard those of her oj)ponents who
adventured into the controversy without first master-
ing its literature. And thus the Church had admit-
tedly, at last, all the argument to herself; or, in
other words, she emerged from the fight completely
victorious. She was able to trace the original English
of the Garden of Eden — perfect then, as now spoken,
but lapsing, after the Fall and Babel, into Hebraic
and other inferiorities, to be thenceforward redeemed,
through our transitional and Hebrew-looking old
English character, into the modern letters and
language of perfect English, the language alike of
earth and heaven.
Other or Lesser Churches : the Old Eoman.
Other popes or religious heads sought at this time
to enter a periodic appearance, as well as the Mormon,
240 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
although not always with equal commanding authority.
Eome still held up her old head, but now at last in
diminished power, and with relatively reduced follow-
ing. She had continued her independent self-develop-
ing career, but every successive doctrinal step had
developed a limping human element, unable to keep
up with the pace, and either left behind by voluntary
secession, or forcibly expelled by the truth- avenging
Church. Thus, when the personal infallibility was
defined and proclaimed towards the end of the nine-
teenth century, it was permissively an " Ex-Cathedra-
only-InfaUibility." But when the " Wholly-Infallible "
question came on in the next century, and the grudging
and faith-wanting spirit of the Ex-Cathedra-only-
Infallible was finally condemned by the Church, and
its half-hearted maintainers had seceded or been ex-
pelled, the triumphant Church emerged with narrowed
dimensions ; and these were afterwards still further
successively reduced when the popes were made equal
to angels, then superior to angels, and so on; the
Chm-ch, however, always concurrently maintaining
that all these steps were alike within the knowledge
and tradition of the Church from the very first.
The Anglican.
Meanwhile, our national Anglican Church, Pro-
testant and Scriptural, had pursued her quiet and
steady, her comprehensive but unprivileged way. She
avoided, in her teaching, those extreme views and
doctrines which she held to have been tacked on, by
after developments, to the simplicity of the original
gospel, and which ever tended to throw a certain
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 241
moral improbability over religion. She thus under-
mined and essentially weakened one of the most active
irritants to scepticism. Thus, too, she was able to
count a much larger roll of Christian belief, and
much more of Church attendance, than there had
been in the comparatively meagre response of the
past, all its sectarian and Sabbatarian zeal notwith-
standing.
Others, Various and Conflicting.
Reed was specially strong for common-sense in religion, —
Author, chap. i.
Turning next from this quiet even-tenour religious
life of the great body of our society of that time, let
us now view, in their more energetic aspects, the
many, but in a comparative sense with the world's
enlarged population, the numerically small surround-
ing sects. Ever aggressive as all of these were, alike
upon the main body of quiet respectable society, and
upon each other, the aggression was ever most
vigorous where the doctrine was most extreme and
the membership most limited. Truth, as they each
explained this striking feature of their respective
cases, lay deep in a well, and it was ever fewer and
fewer who followed the descent to its most rigorous
depths. These small outflanking bodies, then, all
skirmished incessantly with the great mass of steady
and quiet society, which, in their view, had been lulled
to destroying sleep by devices of the evil one. But
withal they still more vigorously turned upon one
another.
Let us glance for a moment at some of their con-
242 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
troversies and contests. None were more contentious
or more self-assertive than the various small Ultra-
Calvinistic bodies. In particular, the Unmitigated
Calvinists, as from a lofty pinnacle of faith, looked
down in contempt, even upon such seemingly near
kindred as the Mitigated and Eeason-Eeconciliation
Calvinists; and as for the Use-of-means Calvinists,
these Unmitigateds would not, spiritually speaking,
even touch them with the tongs. These Unmitigated
Calvinists claimed to be always equal to the utter-
most extremity of their principles, scorning to shirk,
in their ultra-elective doctrine, even the original
chance-medley of the divine dice. The more they
slapped mere human reason in the face, and the
more unhesitatingly they accepted the slaps, the
more were they assured of inclusion in the small
number of the elect.
The Unmitigated Calvinists had special strife at
times with the Eeason-Eeconciliation Calvinists, which,
according, at least, to the record of the latter, were
not always a success. The Eeason-Eeconciliation
Calvinists have recorded the following triumph over
their opponents. The latter had sought to pose the
other with the following problem : Supposing Scrip-
ture to assert that a circle was a square, in what way
was the revealed fact to be taken ? The Unmitigateds
had no sooner delivered their question, than they
rushed the ground, by anticipation, with what seemed
to them the only possible answer, namely, that the
Scripture fact was to be believed simply as given.
But the Eeason-Eeconciliationists enth-ely opposed
this conclusion. ''How," said they, "could a thing
be what, in the very terms of the proposition, it was
A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE. 243
not ? " Their solution was completely different. They
first defined the figure in question to be a circular
square, and then, whatever that might be, they
believed it accordingly.
These Eeason-Eeconciliationists record other vic-
tories. The Ultra-Wesleyans had complained that,
in the terrible Calvinistic system, the divine hate
seemed far broader cast than the divine love ; whereas
with them, on the contrary, the love so overflowed, as
well-nigh to put the other out of sight. There ought,
as they contended, to be, at the least, an equality.
But the Keason-Eeconciliationists hastened to explain.
They frankly admitted that, on a merely numerical
consideration their opponents might be right. But,
on the other hand, as to that prime difficulty, the
comparative handful of the saved, the unutterable
infinity of the love, and that too from all eternity, and
wholly without reference to personal deserts in its
objects, made up altogether a leverage sufficient to
bring the balance to an even beam.
A zealous Ultra-Mormon elder had challenged all
outer Gentile error to a discussion upon proofs of
Mormon truth ; and the challenge had been accepted,
not without general surprise, by a quiet Anglican
bishop. On the principle, once for all, that one ultra-
zealot could be out-argued only by another zealot still
more ultra than himself, these ultra-type sectaries
were usually let alone by all quiet and sensible
mortals. And how, then, fared this exceptional case ?
The account of it, transmitted by the Mormon side, is
very awful indeed, as illustrating the natural depravity
and unreason existing everywhere outside of Mormon
truth. When that truth was vindicated by such con-
244 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
vincing incidents as even infants of six or seven years
— twice blessed little saints — longing and praying to
be quit of this vile earth, that they might ascend at
once to Mormon paradise, at whose bright shining
gates those most holy and fragrant saints of the
Church, Joseph and Brigham, were ever waiting to
receive and welcome them, — when all this, and much
more to the like decisive effect, was duly set forth, what
was the answer of the opposing son of Belial ? He
merely said, in reply, that there were still available
certain old institutions, at Han well and Bedlam, where
such ecstatic states were carried to still higher perfec-
tion, and for which, therefore, all such true Mormons
should go on to qualify.
Miraculous intervention, on their special behalf, was
the great aim and ambition of these various and inter-
warring sects. Each body claimed, of course, count-
less invisible miracles in its own behalf; and each
knew that while its own miracles were true, those of
most of the others were but the devices of the devil.
But what was specially longed for by each body — and,
oh, how longed for !— was but one unmistakable mii'acle
that might, perforce, be seen and acknowledged by all
other and opposing bodies. Many attempts were
made by one and another, and with no small adroit-
ness, to force Heaven, as it were, to show its hand in
their special case. '' Answers to prayer " had been in
chief favour as a leverage of this kind, and most sects
had more or less of a triumphant record in this way.
There had been quite a mania in that j)articular
direction about this time ; and this trap system, as it
was called, had resulted in various triumphs to many
various sects. Let us tm-n for illustration to the case
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 245
of one of these bodies, which had been even more than
usually paraded by its members for its signally striking
results.
This was the prayer-answering case of the Ultra-
Evangelicals, a residuary body, left behind after the
great mass of the original membership had subsided
into the common national and scriptural church. This
body had selected an ingenious and notable plan for
forcing, as it were, an answer to pra^^er; and its
members have themselves put on record their high
satisfaction with its success. A church order was
issued to the effect that all the Ultra-Evangelical
Hospitals, on the one side of a certain line, should be
diligently prayed for, while all on the other side should
be as diligently omitted from prayer. The hospital
was still a necessary feature in life's crowding condi-
tions, and religious and proselytizing zeal were always
still more wanting and wishing and creating the
necessity. After a due interval, the results were
collected and reduced.
There was no small consternation throughout the
body at the first aspects of the result. There appeared,
indeed, as expected, a difference between the two
sides ; but it was, after all, but an unimportant
matter, and, what was much worse still, it was actually
against the side prayed for. Hereupon, however, a
member, who belonged to the Statistical Society,
administered some comfort, for the moment, by the
explanation that the hostile fraction, as it was called,
would have entirely disappeared had the areas of cases
been larger. But the Church leaders were soon aware
of the utter unsatisfactoriness of this secular explana-
tion of the said fraction. That indication as they
246 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
now, after due deliberation, held was obviously divine
disapproval of what had been done, and as such it
was, when rightly viewed, as much a prayer-answering
miracle as would have been any other result.
And thus the whole business was about to be finally
disposed of, and indeed with the expression of no
small satisfaction to most of the body, when an event
occurred which altered entirely the aspect of the whole
case. An old woman had confessed to having prayed
for the proscribed hospitals. "What the poor woman
actually did was to emit an involuntary ejaculation on
behalf of an only daughter, who lay at the time in
one of the hospitals of the proscribed series. But this
was, in effect, of course, a prayer for all in that
particular hosj)ital ; and, if for one hospital, then for
all in the proscribed hst. Indeed, the poor old creature
herself at last saw all this as clearly almost as the
zealous brethren who had suggested it all to her.
Well, then, here was truly a grand marvel ! The
poor woman's daughter indeed died, as one more unit
of the current hospital averages. But there remained
the amazing fact, and not more amazing than bene-
ficially humbling to our natural pride, that the mere
casual ejaculation of this one poor old woman had
been of equal, nay, even of fractionally greater,
efficacy than the united supplications, disciplined and
marshalled forth, from the whole Church !
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 247
CHAPTEE XIII.
THE DAWN OP THE TWENTY-FIFTH CENTURY I ITS
GENERAL ASPECTS.
My great subject was the crowd of the world's future.
Nationalities would be all merged in those great days.—
Author, chap. i.
New and Enlarged Career for our English Eace.
We have now reached a great era in the history ahke
of our country and of the world, when the old inter-
national distinctions are all to merge into one common
citizenship over the whole earth, one common industry
and progress, and the facilities of one common speech.
There had been already, in various ways, a heralding
of the approach of this new and grand era of the
world's development. Latterly, the world's progres-
sive aspects had made it obvious to most observers
that this great change was approaching. But it was
not until just upon the twenty-fifth century, that the
formal abandonment of separate nationalities, and of
their respective separate governments, took place,
making thereby, of the whole world, one great and
undivided human society and interest.
This was, so far, a fitting result, inasmuch as we
248 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
had, by this time, seriously altered or upset all the
old traditional territorial divisions and landmarks.
Who of the nineteenth century, for instance, looking
ui^on the geography of the twenty-fifth, would have
recognized that once insulated Old England of the
earlier time ? At the time we have now reached, the
North Sea had been filled up in all its middle and
southern shallows ; and these great reclaimed areas
were then occupied by a countless throng of busy
humanity, where the Dutch-German, the Belgo-
French, and the English elements freely commingled
in a career of arduous but amicable rivalry. Con-
tinuing south and west, the Channel had been largely
filled up by united English and French effort ; while
of the old Irish Channel there survived but a wide
streak of the deeper water, to diversify the bright new
landscape which had been rescued from the waves
upon either side. Elsewhere also, far and wide over
the world, the great oceanic expanses had been
vigorously invaded, and all the shallower half of their
areas been already redeemed to the world's terra
Jirma.
A vast, unprecedented population of this busy man-
kind now overspread the world from pole to pole.
The term '' vast," however, is used only comparatively.
The world's population then was vast enough truly,
as compared with five centuries before; although it
was but small indeed, as compared with what we
have attained to now, after five more centuries have
passed over our busy race. The world's climate, too,
had been already sensibly changed throughout, as
the effect of those terra firma extension operations
with which we have since, in these five subsequent
A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE. 249
centuries, made so mucli still greater progress. The
narrowing of the evaporable surface everywhere had
diminished everywhere the old violence of all our
meteorologic forces. Already the world was, to an
appreciable degree, freed of dark, heavy cloud masses,
heavy and protracted rains, violent wind storms, and
angry degrees of thunder and lightning. We, in
the twenty-ninth century, have still much further
triumphed over these common disturbers of the peace
of the past, which have indeed no longer even the
pretence of agricultural wants for their uncomfort-
able, inconvenient, business-hindering, and ladies-
bonnet-ruining infliction. Who, I say, would ever
prefer to go back to those old ways and freaks of the
weather, from whose extremes we have happily now
been so thoroughly freed ?
Old England's Last Premier.
Let us look back, for just a passing moment, upon
our Old England, now about to ex]3ire as a separate
and distinctive national existence, and to be swallowed
up in that progress of the world to which she herself,
after planting her energetic sons far and wide over
its surface, had most prominently contributed, thus
giving place to that "larger Britain," as she might
now claim to call the entire world. The last premier
of this Old England stands before us, to make his
opening address to the venerable Wittenagemot of his
age and country. There still survived, in form, the
old Commonwealth administration of a premier and
his ministry, responsible to a representative Parlia-
ment. But otherwise the political drama had materi-
250 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
ally changed in many of its aspects. There was still
an ever- advancing "Liberal," and a restraining and
opposing '' Conservative " party in " the House " and
in the country ; but the aims and objects of the two
contending political bodies were strikingly different
from those of five centuries previous. Political atten-
tion was now, and had been for some time before,
absorbed by the grand question of the impending
change in the disappearance of international distinc-
tions in the world. While the Liberals had been
cherishing and promoting this idea, as one of the
fitting consummations of human progress and brother-
hood, the Conservatives, on the other hand, had been
strenuously, almost even bitterly, opposing it, and
vehemently declaiming against all this upsetting and
erasing of the good old world's landmarks, systems,
and institutions. "Are you a Nationalist, or an Anti-
nationalist ? " was then the great cry. How odd such
a controversy looks now ! We, who are so long accus-
tomed to the larger and nobler idea, look back in
wonder upon these narrow prejudices of the past ;
but, at the comparatively early time we speak of,
there was still a hot dispute over the merits of the
prospect, and a daily expenditure of much argument
and eloquence on either side.
The premier to whom we have just alluded, as
having been the last of his political race, was a
Liberal ; and the final triumph of his party and its
cause was achieved when he formally surrendered his
distinctive premiership, and, along with it, a distinc-
tively English nationality and Government. Thence-
forward the whole world became virtually one people
and one political administration. Practically, how-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 251
ever, government went on much as before, there bemg
no grounds for any disturbance of a revokitionary
character. If certam changes had become mevitable
in the nature of things, yet the people everywhere
were busy, well-provided for, and contented. What
had actually been done was only the formal acknow-
ledgment of facts — the abandoning of nominal inter-
national distinctions, after the realities had practically
ceased.
His Portentous Session — Inauguration Address —
The Features and Signs of his Time.
Our said premier, on first acceding to his high
office, had cast a portentous glance ahead upon this
main question of the day. Possibly he had not con-
templated the final change as being so near at hand
as events were presently to show ; and still less per-
haps that the final triumph to his party should be
dealt out by his own instrumentality. But, none the
less, it was altogether a most interesting occasion,
when he essayed to shadow forth the imminent ex-
pectations of all the larger-minded of his countrymen ;
and, after a sarcastic allusion to the Conservative
gloom over that prospect, passed on to the usual
survey of the world's condition, progress, and pros-
perity, a survey which had long been one of the
prominent features of premiers' addresses.
In following our England's last premier in this
direction, we shall omit his allusions to the grand
aspects presented by the scientific progress of his
time, because we have in view to take, in our next
chapter, one connected glance at this vast subject.
252 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
We shall recall some of the most prominent of his
other statements, distinguishing, as they do, this
turning jDoint and departure in our national history.
Some Striking Features of his Time.
Although the world, in this premier's day, had not,
by any means, attained the advanced position and
the huge population it can now boast of, yet there
was a very substantial advance towards the grand
modern destinies. We have seen that the edge of
troublesome meteorologic disturbance had been already
sensibly turned. The comfort as well as the profit-
able enterprise and uninterrupted industry of life
had been further most materially promoted by the
common system of interposing, throughout inhos-
pitable latitudes especially, the protection of an over-
all glass roofing. This was the more needed when,
by the gradual diminution of cloud and vapour in our
atmosphere, through the contraction of the evaporable
ocean sm-face over the earth, the ever-clearer sky
gave us sharper alternations of heat and cold, espe-
cially between night and day. But now, on the other
hand, our protecting glass, by way of a closer drawn
and more reliable overhead sky, enabled us to make
ourselves comfortable everywhere.
The system of subterranean abode to which the
premier next adverted, and which has now, in our
own more advanced day, been of stern necessity so
universally developed, had made, however, even at this
time, a fair progress. There was still, in that day, some
natural variety of hill and dale scenery remaining
over the world — unlike, in that respect, its present
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 253
condition, which has at last dispensed with all that
imaginative sort of thing, so soon as it came in the
way of people's more solid interests and wants. The
ocean shallows had ah-eady, as we have said before,
been filled up, partly by the levelling of the old hills,
and partly by subterranean excavation. A goodly
proportion of people, who had been crowded off the
surface, in what was, then, at least, deemed to be
crowding — had gradually taken to subterranean life.
But there had not then, by any means, arisen that
dense mass of layer upon layer, in downward suc-
cession, which now characterizes our subterranean
existence.
Next, in our premier's address, came the food
question. How are all the people off in that respect
at this time ? Indeed, the time in question was not
more one of the political transition w^e have alluded
to, than of a transition economic, and, in the most
literal sense, corporeal ; for the last remnants of
ploughs and spades had already been surrendered as
things of the past, and we at length depended entirely
on the chemical laboratory for our food. And truly,
in spite of occasional longings for the old flesh-pots
of Egypt, a very good and sure source of supply
it has proved to be, say T, speaking of it five centuries
further on ; and one also that has elevated our great
provision trade out of the tedious and costly delay
and the unsavoury dirt of the natural processes of the
old ways of it, into the summary action and cleanly
processes of the ways chemical.
People had not yet, indeed, by that time, opened
the more modern chapter of doubts and fears about
the due supply of phosphates and other indispensables
254 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
for our bones and our brains ; nor did they depend,
as we have now to do, upon our twice-blessed and
productive dead, who were then, perhaps, more of
trouble than profit to the living, whereas now, in such
striking contrast, they are our indispensable heritage
of good things. Our premier s total omission of both
of these great modern questions, for good or for evil,
of our day, showed that they had not yet loomed
seriously upon the horizon of his much earlier time.
The premier concluded by an inspiring allusion to
the great progress of his time through the universal
application of convertible energy. What might he
not have said on this vast subject, if he could but
have been resurrectioned into our time ! Still, he
had something to boast of even in those far-back
days. As he glanced over the world's busy scene, he
remarked that electric light had everywhere, when
required, made the night as bright as the day, while
electricity mainly supplies all their locomotive energy.
And already, as he remarked, they were helping
themselves to electric force, freely and cheaply, out
of the sun's ample stores. The crowding earth had
ah'eady, indeed, inaugurated the relief of aerial travel,
that great feature and resource of our own more
advanced time ; but the old railway era had not yet
closed ; and the premier could allude with triumph to
the fact of his day, that our great trunk lines, retain-
ing still their venerable old names, and radiating still
from the vast metropolis of England, were no longer
arrested at the shores of the narrow old island. Our
Great Eastern Line, for instance, then passed out-
wards and onwards over the wholly reclaimed North
Sea continuously to Eastern Europe and furthest
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 255
Asia ; while the South Western Line crossed the like
reclaimed Channel to further western reclamation-
extensions of France and Spain ; and the Great
Western Line, coursing over the terra firma of what
was once the Irish Sea, and through old Ireland,
slipped out upon the great Atlantic area, over those
already inaugurated bridging projections, which, from
either side, were in after centuries to meet in lines
and areas of solid ground over the whole interval.
And already, too, had the enterprise of the time laid
down, through intervening ocean depths, a highway
to one of our chief outside gardens of climatic delights,
our cherished Island of Madeira, which, with the
express speed of the time, over the diamonded iron
rails, so far surpassing in hardness and duration the
old steel or merely carbonized rails, was like a kind of
rural suburb to the metropolitan home territory, with
the ever-fresh ocean still skirting the route, and
serving, instead of intermediate open fields, to relieve
the eye as it fain alternates from the crowded landscape.
Thus pleasantly, as well as with the aspiring ambi-
tions of his day, discom-sed our premier of that
expiring twenty-fourth century ; and we must hope
that he lived well into the twenty-fifth, so as to wit-
ness and eujoy some substantial share of those further
wonders of progress, of which we have still to speak.
The Crown of Labour.
Reed would speak of "the Crown of Labour " as that which
excelled and was to outlive all other crowns. — Author, chap. i.
Before concluding our remarks upon this interesting
transition time of our retrospect, let us glance at one
256 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
characteristic custom of the time, that, namely, of
the pubhc competition for, and the pubKc award of,
*'the Crown of Labour." Long prior to this time, a
custom had been established of thus doing honour to
labour. The aim was to do honour to a righteously
useful life. In the annual recurrence of this national
custom for each English county, there was somewhat
a revival of the early Greek games, at all events in
the national enthusiasm that was evoked. But the
modern contest had a higher and more ambitious
moral ; for instead of mere feats of body or mind, it
concerned the useful work of the whole life. The
candidates respectively submitted all the beneficial
activities of their lives to the appointed judges ; and
each candidate, as the reward of a life, which, under
all the circumstances of its case and of its time, was
the most diligently and usefully spent, claimed the
crown of labour.
About the time we are now engaged with, namely,
towards the end of the twenty-fourth century, the usual
annual contest was distinguished, on one of its occa-
sions, and in one particular county, by a rather
remarkable candidate. These county divisions of our
still distinctive Old England had not yet been oblite-
rated. The county in question was Berkshire, and
the candidate alluded to was an accomplished young
maiden, who bore the high and ancient name of
Victoria Guelf. And she rightly bore that historic
name, for she was a lineal descendant of the old royal
race of her country.
There were many Victorias of that time, a name still
given in honour of the distinguished queen of the
nineteenth century, now, of course, long gathered to
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 257
her fathers. The royal family had, in centuries before
this time, settled chiefly in three great groups in the
country, and had mostly become, in common with
the multitudes around them, industrious and useful
citizens. One of these groups occupied the Balmoral
vicinities in North Britain, where, as Guelfs or Gaelfs,
and finally Mac Gaels, they were gradually swallowed
up into Highland nomenclature. Another took to
the pleasant Isle of Wight, and developed into a
family of Gulfs, after John Bull's slumping way of
changing " Bolougne mouth " into " Bull and Mouth,"
and "God encompasseth us" into "Goat and Com-
passes." The third group remained in the Windsor
neighbourhood, keeping to the pure original name ;
and now, on behalf of the family county of Berkshire,
the youthful and accomplished descendant stood forth,
in the spirit and equalities of those times, to contend
with the world for the crown of labour.
Although but one amongst England's many counties,
and also amongst the smaller of them, Berkshire, at
this time, presented comparatively a really great
field ; for, within its very limited area, it now con-
tained half as many people as had owned allegiance
to its fair young candidate's illustrious ancestor,
throughout her then wide and comparatively great
empire of five centuries past.
The mode of procedure, in the awarding of the
crown, was for the judges, as the first step, to make
up a pile, fairly representative, upon the best evidence
attainable, of each candidate's life labour. This pile
would be swelled out meritoriously in some directions,
contracted in others, and of an average bulge else-
where and so on; and it was afterwards for the
258 A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE.
candidate, or the candidate's supporters, to point to
the merit indications, and to explain or excuse the less
favourable or the adverse features of the truth-telling
pile. Each candidate stood by this testifying docu-
ment, waiting the turn and opportunity for an ex-
planatory or justifying address, alike to the judges,
and to that vast confronting audience which con-
stituted the ultimate jury of the great trial.
An audience of those times could be vast indeed, for
science progress, however far short of our modern
attainments, enabled millions of eyes and ears easily to
see what was done and hear what was said. Tele-
phones and photophones conveyed the voice clearly to
all distances. And again, ever since cross-electric
discovery enabled us to fabricate diamond, almost
without either cost or trouble, out of any carbonaceous
rubbish, sight-glasses of every kind were so marvel-
lously improved, that any extent of audience, far oif
as well as near, might be attent, alike with eyes asj
with ears, when far outside of natural sight from the
speaker.
By these and other advances of the science of th<
day, public speaking had become something very
different indeed from the old gesticulating and ex-
hausting method of past times up to the nineteenth
and even the twentieth centuries. Immediately in
front of any one addressing the public, on any great
occasion such as that we now treat of, were arrayed
all the paraphernalia of science for conveying the
voice clearly far and wide. Then, again, the surround-
ing reflectory apparatus sent the speaker's reflected
self to accompany his voice. It was for him to stand
perfectly still within all these scientific surroundings.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 259
much as when one's photograph used to be so leisurely-
taken by the imperfect science and art of five centuries
before. The practised calm of the experienced public
speaker of the twenty-fourth century could do this ;
and, without moving a muscle that was unconnected
with speech, pour forth streams of impassioned
eloquence. But, as with the old photographing of the
nineteenth century, so the novice of the twenty-fourth
would need artificial steadying, lest the features of his
person and the sounds of his speech should be alike
blurred by the imperfect focussing.
The youthful Victoria stood, in line with the many-
others, courageously by her pile. Ascending the
rostrum with characteristic composure, when her turn
to speak was announced, she made a first favourable
impression by beginning her address at once without
ceremony, and without requisition for any artificial
aids. Most fair and winsome of look, and with the
ever-attractive bearing of a direct simplicity of pur-
pose, and withal still in the fresh youth of her teens,
she quickly excited a general and lively interest
throughout the vast audience. Leaving the favourable
aspects of her pile to tell their own tale, she turned
directly and solely upon the less favourable, as well
with the delicate reserve which the case required, as
with that judicious brevity, which, even then, five
centuries back fuom to-day, was alone endurable,
w^here so much other work of the busy world had to be
crowded into its too brief and fleeting hours.
The defensive line was well chosen, for it was in
entire accord with the sentiment of the time, although
it might have sounded somewhat oddly from such a
quarter some few centuries earlier. " If I may be
260 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
allowably proud of my ancestry," said the young
candidate, "yet my ancestry gives me no help in this
contest, which is entirely one of the present, the real,
the jDersonal. Nay more, my said ancestry blocks the
way, as I brace up to confront true battle ; and I
may well envy, for this occasion at least, those of my
opponents who are, in that respect, wholly unencum-
bered in their march. If I have indeed succeeded in
making myself not unknown to literary fame, and to a
great audience even far beyond my own country ; if
society's many sorrows have not seldom touched my
heart, and directed my steps to bereaved homes
around me, remember, in my behalf, that all this is
in spite of high ancestry, and of the time-absorbing
pre -occupations of an exacting social condition, entirely
beyond my own choosing, and certainly of the very
smallest advantage to me with its special handicapping
in the present race. And may I not plead also, that
the past liberality of a great nation, in providing but
too amply for my family and myself, however honour-
able to the giving party, has yet, in all its paralyzing
effects, proved by no means the least of the obstacles
besetting my path in this my ambitious race for a new
and a true crown ? "
Let us here glance, parenthetically, at another
characteristic incident, which added its variety to the
Berkshire programme. Just as all the Berkshire
addresses had been concluded, and the vote was about
to be taken, with all the rapidity and precision of
advanced scientific arrangement in these matters, so
as to conclude the whole procedure within the business
day, word was brought that the adjacent county of
Oxford had just signally distinguished itself by a noble
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 261
and independent choice for its yearly labour-crown.
A centenarian veteran, an agricultural labourer, had
at last laid down his spade, because the country's
crowded surface, the advanced chemistry of the day,
and all the changed ways of these later times, had
entirely superseded both spade and spadesman. After
a long, laborious, and signally useful life, it only
remained for the weary veteran, ere he left the world
he had served so well, to claim of his county the
crown of labour ; and to the honour of that special
world of classic and scientific attainments and
reminiscences, his appeal was not put forth in vain.
And so also in Berkshke, with no less credit, albeit
upon a different line of consideration, was the crown
awarded to our youthful Victoria. But it was no
easily won battle withal, for close upon the heels of
the victor followed a troop of formidable, if unsuccessful,
rivals. There was, first, a distinguished astronomer,
who had laboriously compiled the exposition of the
birth and entire physical development of the asteroidal
group of our system; secondly, a widowed and
struggling laundress, who had so brought up her large
family, that every member of it afterwards rose to
prosperity and distinction, and aptly illustrated the
nature and training they owed to her by gratefully
bringing their sheaves of plenty to the feet of such a
mother ; thirdly, a geologico-physical geographer,
who, in his grand school atlas, had completed the
earth's aspects back to the early tertiaries ; and lastly,
a smart brigaded young shoeblack, w^hose successive
improvements in his machine, as to time-saving and
reduction of charge, marked quite an era in his par-
ticular vocation, — for in those days machinery did
262 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
everywhere, and uncomplainingly well, all the harder
work of society, whether work clean or work dirty,
while the old familiar term " shoehlack" had survived
into times and ways which left it indeed but dimly
applicable to the juvenile director-general of the
ingenious little machine in question.
The crowning of the young Victoria was indeed a
memorable incident of its time. The interest was
increased by the circumstance of the extreme youth ot
the successful candidate for so high an honour. Her
age, when she claimed the crown, was but eighteen
years and twenty-four days. Old England had once
more a Queen Victoria, whose graceful young head
bore a crown. It was the only crown that had survived
in the world into these times, the noblest of crowns —
The Crown of Labour.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 263
CHAPTEE XIY.
SCIENCE PROGRESS OVER A THOUSAND YEARS' RETROSPECT.
PART I. FROM THE DISCOVERY OF THE CROSS-ELECTRIC
TO THAT OF THE DUPLICATION OF THE CROSS.
Black had a notable theory, entirely his own, about crossing
the electric current. — Author, chap. i.
I HAVE postponed the large subject of science, until
I could enter upon it uninterruptedly, after I had
taken my reader through our material and general
progress, up to the dawn of the twenty-fifth century.
"With that century, as we have seen, comes so remark-
able a change in the world's aspects and conditions,
that it constitutes, as I have already said, a great
era of division in my thousand years' retrospect.
With that century, the world lost its distinctive
nationality system, and finally completed its gradua-
tion into one great homogeneous society, to the
immense advantage of all human progress, and, not
least, of that science progress which I am now to
record.
The science progress of these past thousand years
may be divided into three grand eras, which are,
respectively, that of the cross-electric discovery, the
discovery of the duplication of the cross, and lastly
264 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
that of the redupHcation. The first came to our
help not a very great while after our retrospect opens ;
the second occurred towards the midway years ; while
the last, and, for our time, the crowning triumph
of all, came off within our own century, and even
within the term and recollection of many now living.
This last was, in short, the unprecedentedly grand
discovery of my most illustrious and venerable friend
Black, a discovery which has enabled us to transmit
not only our minds in our messages, but also our
own material selves into far space, in order to meet
and commune personally with other beings out there,
and to enjoy the reciprocation of their like personal
intercourse.
The Cross-Electric Principle.
To go back to describe with any fulness the cross-
electric principle, a subject so long ago familiar even
to our school-boys, would be unpardonable waste of
time at this advanced and busy day. I shall, there-
fore, merely observe, that its discovery gave us a
power to handle the organic as we could previously
do the more simply chemical. Thenceforward we
entered, mQi renewed and marvellously increased
facilities, upon organic production. When the crowded
earth had no longer room for provision-growing in
the ordinary and dilatory round-about of old nature,
we were ready, by aid of the cross-electric apparatus
with which science had armed us, to transfer the
food-raising to the much narrower space-require-
ments as well as time-requirements of the chemical
laboratory.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 265
Electro-Light Speed.
But as I have already alluded to that particular
part of our science progress in my earlier chapters,
I am disposed to deal here rather with another
section, which was even yet more marvellous and
striking, namely the conjunction, or say rather the
co-aligning of the cross-electric force progression. with
the light-vibration, by which we attained that modern
wonder of all wonders, the Cross-Electric Light- Speed,
a speed which exceeded that of ordinary light in the
proportion in which the space between the crests
of the light waves exceeds that between the atoms
or points of the ether medium. And again, enormous
as this new speed was, we could further double it,
when we afterwards understood how to transfer the
electro-light line of progression to the wider-waved
red and heat rays of the less refrangible end of the
spectrum, from those of the violet and chemical, with
which our great discovery had oj)ened. In short, our
electro-light line now, as it w^ere, leapt the space
between the light-vibrations in the same time as,
while only simple light, it traversed that between
the ether points.
The Duplication.
Clearly enough then, this enormous accession to
our capability of speed must supposably give us a
grand power in many ways. We could, for example,
overtake ordinary light in its journey into space at
its heretofore all- surpassing speed of over one hundred
and eighty thousand miles in a second. We could
266 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
now, in fact, quite easily overtake a comparatively
slow-coach speed of that kind ; but then, cui bono ?
as we were fain to complain; for after our new electro-
light projection had overtaken some far-back light-
wave projection, carrying away into far space the
aspect of our earth, say a thousand or a hundred
thousand years back, we were confessedly powerless
to do anything whatever with the curious and most
interesting picture thus overtaken. In short, we had
no knowledge as to how such aspect or image was
to be brought back into our vision and possession.
And thus matters continued in suspense until that
grand further discovery of the Duj)lication of the cross,
by which we were enabled to bring back our world
of the far past, to communicate with other worlds
outside, and to enter that "Higher Life," which, as
we are presently, as well as most pleasantly, to record,
pervades the surrounding universe, as the result and
reward of all this advanced knowledge.
But the protracted interval, until we had attained
to this the second grand era, was filled up, none
the less, by a wonderful activity, alike of business
and of science progress. It would, perhaps, ill
become me to dilate, in any vainglorious spirit,
upon the prosperous innings which the new food-
producing ways gave to that great provision trade
which my ancestors had handed down to my family,
and of which, as I am justly proud to think, I am
myself now one of the conspicuous heads in the
world. Of course all the laboratorial attainments
of the present day were not jumped into at once,
when, some nine centuries ago, the cross-electric
power fell to man's disposal. He had to grow by
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 267
degrees into that ready ease and elegance with which
we can now turn out, from our modern Liebigs, as
savoury and natural-looking a "joint " as ever came
out of the old butcher's shop of the long-past-and-
done-with nineteenth century — with which, in short,
we can thrust in, at one end of the Liebig machine,
the valueless elements of air, earth, and water,
gathered up freely for the jDurpose all about, and
bring them out again at the other end as a hunch
of bread or good potato, or a prime cut of fresh fish,
flesh, fowl or good red herring, of dimensions and
quality just according to order and money. The
cross-electric power enabled us, as I have said, to
fabricate organic structure, much as the simple
electric power we were previously possessed of
enabled us to fabricate crystallization and other of
the simpler chemical processes. But, after all, we
cannot yet infuse life into these cross-electrically
fabricated organisms — much less, of course, the
nervous and mental action. All that, as we are
perhaps able, fairly and scientifically, to infer, per-
tains to steps still further on — might pertain, in short,
to that triplication or ter-cross, to which we may or
may not hereafter attain.
During no small time before the problem of the
Duplication was solved, expectation had been all alive
over the world at the supposed near prospect of the
grand discovery. There was also another circum-
stance which contributed an intense and ever in-
creasing interest in the case. Certain phenomena
had been observed at occasional intervals, which,
from our knowledge of the cross-electric, had im-
pressed some of our more sagacious scientists of that
268 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
time with the idea of these being nothing less than
messages from outside to om' earth — messages which,
from want of adequate science attainment, in short,
from the duplication being still unknown to us,
we knew not how to deal with. Eepeatedly, in
fact, we were aware, from certain effects produced,
that a cross-electric bolt from outside had struck
one of our many cross-electric conducto-attractors,
which were already all over the world for an infinitude
of purposes. Indeed one great electrician of those
days, who had hapj)ened to notice close to him one
of these phenomena, had, with more zeal than dis-
cretion, incurred a serious shock by trying to ascertain,
at once, the strength and quality of the mj^sterious
visitor. But as to all this we remained in powerless
ignorance until the grand discovery of the duplication.
Extreme Simplicity when known.
How often has it been said that the greatest dis-
coveries are, of all things, the most simple when
once they are known ! How simj)le, for instance, is
the law of gravitation ! The great discovery of the
duplication was no exception to this rule, and so soon
as its mystery was made known to an eagerly
expectant world, there was only universal wonder
that a matter so simple and obvious had not sooner
suggested itself. But anyway as to this, we had
now at last acceded to the power, which, by means
of that duplicatory arrangement, now so everyday
a matter even to our school-boys, we could not only
despatch our messenger into space, but make him
also bring back the reply. The Energy-charge, that
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 269
is to say, could be divided into two distinct forces,
in the proportions calculated and desired : the one
an outward force, carrying the electro-light charge
into space ; the other a return force, which, failing
any intelligent intervention for other disposal at its
turning extremity, brought back the impression which
the overtaken light-vibration was conveying, at
ordinary light-speed, into far space ; or, to speak
with stricter accuracy, that which, exactly, was
brought back was the reaction, or exact reversal, of
what had gone out, and scientifically termed the
*' Duplication ; " so that, for example, the rays of
light which quitted our earth, say, ten thousand years
ago, could be in effect, by reversal action, brought back
so as to restore to us the aspect or picture of the
earth as it was at the moment of the long past
emanation. Of course, nothing was actually brought
back ; all was mere counter-vibratory effect — the
power of the return or duplicatory force to reverse
exactly the outward light-emanations, and to do this
at electro-light speed. And also at any arrested
intermediate stage of this return, the picture that was
being brought back could have been reproduced just
as it would have appeared at that particular stage
or distance in the original outward light-emanation.
Grand Eesults from the Discovery.
But, not to waste more time over matters now so
old and so well known, let me return to my historical
record, and glance at the commotion excited by this
grand discovery of its time. Further on it will be my
privilege to allude to the much later discovery of the
270 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Reduplication, so clearly and indisputably achieved
by the venerable and immortal Black. But the dis-
covery of the simple duplication is a less clear matter ;
for, in fact, tens of thousands put in their claims,
as they had added fact after fact, each contributive to
the great result, until that result seemed at last
grasped simultaneously by them all.
No sooner was the new power publicly proclaimed
and explained, than multitudes over the entire globe
prepared to use it. Subject to the very exact
astronomic calculations then attained to, messages
began to be sent out in all directions, in order to get
back our earth's aspects in past times ; and those who
were content with the briefer retrospects soon began,
in this way, to harvest their due replies, and to exercise
themselves in the new trade (afterwards so vast a
business) of transferring the light-impress to the
prepared surface of the quasi-photographic paper.
But all this is rather what occurred in the after leisure
of the earlier stages of the discovery ; for the earliest
excitements and the earliest efforts were directed to
communications with our intelligent fellow-beings of
outside worlds. This new and grand era, thus opened
for our own little world, I must now deal with.
Our " Prentice Hand " in Missives to Worlds
Outside.
Which world, or which worlds, were we to begin with ?
The nearest, of course, was our moon. But our teles-
copes and spectroscopes had sufficiently assured us, by
this time, that no intelligent life, at any rate no
human life, was there, although we did afterwards, in
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 271
our own later days, upon personal visitation find there
certain low-class organic existence. Turning then
sorrowfully from this nearest neighbour, there lay
next, on the one side of us, Venus, on the other side,
Mars. The former was nearest ; she was, besides,
about our own size ; and our science could already
estimate for us that her greater dimensions than Mars,
and especially her considerably greater heat and light
supply, had probably placed her in decided advance,
physically and mentally, of that other planet. In short,
we were already guessing at what proved to be the
case, namely, that Venus had, while Mars had not yet,
attained to the duplication, and possibly (as proved to
be true) not yet even to the simple cross-electric.
But then again, the fiery little planet lay far more
temptingly exposed before us than the ever cloud-
concealed sister on our other side. No doubt we had,
by this time, quite ascertained, by repeated signs and
glimpses, that Venus was indeed inhabited ; but, as to
dear little Mars, our telescopes and all our advanced
photography of the time had perfectly familiarized us
with all the varied surface, and with the towns and
other constructions and works of all his busy people.
As by one unanimous impulse, therefore, our first
communications were directed there. Fortunately
the planet, just at the time, was nearly in the best
conjunction for the purpose, and having made due
mathematical calculation, we were soon busy project-
ing our electro -light lines, so as to drop them upon
the planet's surface.
272 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
A Missive from Outside to Ourselves.
In our first comparatively rude efforts, many of our
bolts, as we had to reckon, must whirr helplessly past
the planet, while others would strike the seas or
unpeopled spaces, and thus be quite unnoticed, even
granting that the people had, in science progress,
attained to the duplication. We had therefore to
involve ourselves in a very considerable energy
expenditure, in these our opening exercises, and we
had by no means then that prompt and cheap energy-
supply which we can so well boast of now. It was
whilst we were all busy over these first efforts with
Mars, all of them, of course, quite futile as to results,
that, upon one memorable day, a cry was raised, and
at once reverberated over the world, of a message to
the earth from outside space. The fact is, that, in
recollection of those previously inexplicable cross-
electrical phenomena I have alluded to, which were
now more strongly than ever suspected to have been
such outside communication, the strictest watch had
been everywhere set for them, we being now perfectly
assm-ed of our ability to deal with them. The
electrical connections were therefore everywhere in
readiness, and all the precise forms of procedure
made generally known for all observers, volunteers
and professionals.
The missive bolt, in this case, as soon as seen, was
happily at once secured in electric connection ; and
now, in presence of countless observers, its behaviour
was watched with breathless interest. Almost on the
instant of the connection being linked, there appeared
a play of bright light at the extremity of the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 273
*' pointer." While all were wistfully gazing at this
phenomenon, a voice suddenly electrified the assembly
with the suggestion that this play of light was no
other than the energy-waste of transmitted speech,
which we were as yet unable to deal with. The
suggestion proved to be correct. We were unable, just
then, to transfer the ether vibration to the air, and
thus to hear the transmitted sounds.
But, first of all, we must ascertain whence the
voice had come, and this was happily quite within
our power. Alike by the direction, and by the time
interval of our response signal, we could not doubt
that the message was from Yenus, that planet being
then comparatively near to us, and situated in her
orbit just opposite to where the message line had
struck our earth, showing, in this latter fact, a wonder-
ful and doubtless long-practised precision of cal-
culated aim. We were quite aware that our act of
response to the Venus message would at once indicate
to the Venus people the fact of our having attained
to the scientific stage of the duplication. We were
already, in fact, in electro-light line connection with
that world, and it was now for us to wait uj)on, and
learn from, our confessed superior. We were soon
indeed aware, from the changed behaviour of the
pointer, that our responsive action had been duly
apprehended ; for, at once, there began that small but
steady and uniform energy stream, which would
prove the easiest of transfer from ether to air. We
were not altogether unprepared for this transfer
operation, but of course we had never dealt, in that
respect, with an outside message. But, after half an
hour's various blundering, we were at length aware
T
274 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
of success, by a Venus voice pouring into our ears,
just as though the speaker were close alongside of us.
It was a low and monotonous chant, suited to the
purpose aforesaid. "We replied in the like strain,
in token of our common understanding ; and thus the
two worlds were in established communication, while
on Venus' part those educatory steps were at once
begun, which were to graduate us into the language
of that Higher Life, into which, as we were afterwards
more fully to learn, we had now entered.
But having now conducted my record up to the
discovery of the duplication, and described the com-
motion which that discovery gave rise to over our
earth, I must reserve, for another chapter, some
account of the new and vast world of knowledge,
which this grand progress had opened to us.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 275
CHAPTEE XV.
SCIENCE PROGRESS IN A THOUSAND YEARS' RETROSPECT.
PART II. FROM DISCOVERY OF THE DUPLICATION OF
THE CROSS, UP TO DISCOVERY OF THE REDUPLICATION.
Attaining, as Black forecasted, to knowledge and power as
yet undreamt of. — Author, chap. i.
The established routine of stejDS by which, under the
tutelage of our new friend and fair sister Venus, we
attained to the language of that Higher Life, into
which we had now entered, is such an old and well-
known story as to need no time-wasting attention here.
I shall pass at once, therefore, to the new world of
science and business to which our grand discovery had
introduced us. The new tide that then flowed in
upon us took two main directions : first, that of
research into the past aspects of our earth ; second,
that of intercourse with systems and worlds outside
of us. Later on, we entered into a third section of
progress, by our success in rendering the duplication
of the cross available to return to us photographs of
outside scenes and worlds. In this way we secured
pictures, magnifiable, even to life-size, of outside
planetary and satellite scenery of some of the orbs of
276 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
our own system; while we had also, long ere this time,
attained to the perfect transfer of the hues or colours
of all photographed scenes. We could thus tell what
life, if any, was upon the planets or moons of our
system, and we were thus, so far, prepared for that
actual personal intercourse to which the completing
discovery of the Eeduplication introduced us further
on.
Keproduction op successiye Past Aspects of our
Earth.
Whether for science purposes, or for those of business,
or for mere leisurely recreative curiosity, our whole
world was soon now transformed into a busy scene of
*^ fishing " into all the past of the earth's history and
surface aspects ; and this fishing, as it is still called,
has been carried on all these centuries since, even
still more vigorously, as well as much more system-
atically, than at first ; for as we gained in astronomico-
mathematical precision, the results were ever more
satisfactory, and were secured at ever less of energy-
cost and energy-waste. Towards our own time, in
this twenty-ninth century — all the astronomic move-
ments, and their complex relative displacements,
being so perfectly known and calculable, even to that
latest of our attainments, the exact displacement, in
speed and direction, due to our system's movement in
space — it has become quite common for families to dip
back for the matter of a hundred or a thousand years,
in order to recall their ancestry when in the very act
of some particular incident or event. Of course this is
a marvellously precise calculation, and even now not
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 277
easy of perfect success, unless with all the chances of
some breadth of time involved in the occasion sought
for. Thus if the ancestral doings in question had
concerned, say, some al fresco public meeting, lasting
for but an hour, there would be small chance of
spotting our man, unless indeed the retrospect were
only a matter of a century or so. Such short terms
were ever the general favourites, because applicants
were not kept very long waiting for their answer back
from space ; but the estimates for a thousand years or
upwards were a much more difficult business.
On the other hand, there were great helps available
to all parties, from the accumulated records, carefully
preserved, of every previous fishing, whether success-
ful or not for its intended object. Every restoration of
the past, even although not at all that immediately
sought for, might prove subsequently of use to some
one, so that rarely indeed was any expended energy,
however disappointing as to original intention, abso-
lutely lost. Thus abortive particular efforts to find
particular persons, times or events, were usually sold,
at so much per year or century of retrospect, to those
who made a business, and a good business it was and
still is, of that sort of lore. Thus when the view of
one hemisphere of the earth, at some particular
instant of past time, was duly secured and was found
happily to include what was specially sought for, that
special section would be taken out by the parties
interested, and the whole remainder sold in the
market ; or if there had been a complete misfit in
bringing back either a too early or a too late time, the
whole would be thus sold, and, if so inclined, another
fishing adventured on. Those who made a business
278 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
of buying up all this surplusage, became by degrees
possessed, amongst them, of a more or less complete
history and physical geography of the earth's past.
In fact, between the many of these dealers in the past,
every day, hour, even minute, aye, and at times even
successions of seconds, might be pieced together
backwards out of all their arrears of records. And
when these records consisted, as they did for a long
time at first, of actual photographic paper, however
thin the material, even to the metalloid preparation
compressed to the hundred-millionth of a millimetre,
the piles of such stock were, nevertheless, incon-
veniently bulky upon our crowded surface. But after
that great discovery, through the medium of colour-
sound (pressing necessity being, in every age, the
mother of invention), by which we could transfer and
store up the mode of that sound, so as to reproduce
and retransfer at pleasure all the photograi)hic hues
and aspects, the whole case and in fact the whole
business modes of the case, were fundamentally altered,
and all its old accumulating difficulties dispersed.
A very good illustration of the ways and the means,
in this now huge business development, is supplied
by a case of my own, happening only the other day.
A very distinct record had somehow come down to us,
from as far back as just a thousand years ago, of a
picnic, one Easter holiday time, at Brighton, the
once-famous watering-place of those old days, in
which my great ancestor, so often alluded to in this
work, figured with all his family. This subject
happening to turn uj) during the evening's leisure in
our family circle, a wish was expressed all round to
institute a fishing for this very picnic scene. My
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 279
wife, indeed, grumbled a trifle at the cost, which
would certainly reach a thousand energy, that is ElOO
per century ; while I, for my part, demurred at avoid-
able delay, and would incur even the extra cost of the
extreme heat vibrations. But first, there must, as
usual, be a search amongst existing records, which
might possibly supply us, ready-made, and at very
much less cost, with just what we wanted. Accordingly
we advertised our want, giving time, place, and some
other guiding circumstances ; and curiously enough
there was sent us, in postal course, what was appa-
rently just the beginning of the very repast in question.
It proved indeed to be the very event we sought, but
in a most disappointing way ; for not only was our
ancestral mother turned from us, stooping, and in the
act of laying the cloth upon the beach gravel, close to
the then new pier of the place, but our venerable father
himself, who appeared to be busy drawing a beer-
bottle cork, had also his stooping back to us, and
moreover, by the embonpoint of his goodly figure,
was shadowing from our view about one-half of the
rest of the family. We all exclaimed that this w^as
not satisfactory, and that a fishing for quarter to half
an hour further on must be instituted. We accord-
ingly passed the order to one of the companies (by the
way, as I was one of its agents, I secured the trade
discount), and were fortunate to have back, in duly
brief time, a response view for 22' 11" after the time
of the rejected picture, with the family all distinctly
before us, and all, as we had expected, hard and most
healthily at work with teeth and jaws. In order to
live and work we must all eat, even if we are not
usually seen to most striking advantage in that way.
280 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Curious Questions and Solutions, Scientific and
Historical.
Curious scientific questions opened upon us as, with
unsated curiosity, we pursued backwards, to the utter-
most limits, this remarkable branch of the advanced
science of our time. Of course, as we projected our
lines further and further into space, and thus propor-
tionately back into past time, we ever expected that
possibly, at some stage of these far-off journeys, the
attenuating light-ray, when overtaken, would fail of
characteristic reversion — would have, in fact, practi-
cally attenuated into irresponsive nothing, by that
rapidly reducing process of the square of the distance.
But no, we still pick up the ray, and still range through
ether-filled space. The curious question as to the
cessation of differential vibration, is indeed a remark-
able feature of the case, and could, by itself, even if
we had wanted other contributive data, have clearly
shown that the spaces between the ether points,
however small, were definite and measurable distances.
But at the extreme end of the differentiation -vibration
we were apparently no nearer to an empty and ether-
less space. Our messages have as yet unfailingly
returned to us, if we except only a fair average, inter-
cepted or destroyed by the fatal electro-light power
of solar photospheres, or of any other occasionally
encountered and dissolving force of that kind. The
electro-light projection, as of course we know, cannot
pass through its own kind, but is at once arrested
and absorbed. Further on we shall see more of this,
in the practical case of our own solar photosphere.
Our message Imes pass unimpeded through all bodies
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 281
and all forces unarrayed in that culminating force
of which they themselves consist.
What striking results have, after all, come of this
great branch of our knowledge ! Every school to-day
has its great atlas of the past of our earth ; and every
family may possess its own special atlas of descent,
catching glimpses of its ancestry along the whole line
of this descent, where, as in our own case, there are
any guiding records to fix the connection or identify
the restored scenes. What countless historical
questions and j)roblems have already been solved, by
our grand power to bring back the actual places and
events, and to look upon them and the actors, while
in the very act of their history-making. JuHus Csesar,
for instance, has turned up repeatedly, in the course
of both his trips across the old Channel, and every
school-boy can now see, for each occasion, whence
he started, and whither he was obviously bound. We
have long set at rest all the old dispute about ancient
Troy. The building of the great pyramid has often
turned up at various stages ; and countless other old
Egyptian questions have been solved, even to sighting
the venerable Menes, after considerable chronological
readjustment. Old Livy has been caught in the very
act of writing one of his lost books, seated one bright
day in the central al fresco of his own home ; and
thus three sheets have been recovered, while others
lay temptingly about, but, alas ! with their tablet
faces downwards. Countless zealous ethnologists and
evolutionists have searched for centuries, to their
heart's content, amidst flint-chipping races, and still
remoter missing links, until hardly anything more
remains unexplored in that direction.
282 A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE.
Intercoukse with Worlds Outside : The " Higher
Life " of the Universe.
So soon as we had acquired the language of that
Higher Life which we had now entered, a vast world
of new knowledge, of course, was at once opened upon
us. We were now made aware, for the first time,
that the intelligent universe was mainly divided into
those worlds which had attained, through science, to
the higher life, and those which were still short
of it. There was also, to be sure, a great section of
worlds, to be styled unintelligent, because man had
not yet arisen upon them, and of which our own
system furnished examples in some of its outer
planets and moons, as we shall afterwards have
occasion to see. We shall also have to speak of a
phase of human life still higher than the so-called
higher life ; but as to this and other kindred subjects
we will not now fm^ther interrupt our main narrative.
Allow me, however, just this general remark, in
j)assing, to the effect that the attainments of worlds,
as we all now know so well, depend upon their
relative position in their system as to heat and
light supply, their size or mass, and the greater or
less interval for progress, since their attainment,
respectively, to dynamic equilibrium. As the rule,
progress begins with those members of a system
which are nearest to their sun. Thus Venus, although
our earth equalled or surpassed her otherwise, had
a more advanced development as being nearer to the
light-source ; while we, for like reasons, were in
advance of Mars. According to higher-Hfe rule,
the outside world that lies nearest to a higher-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 283
life world falls to the latter' s charge, until, through
science attainment, that heretofore outside world
has entered the higher life. Thus we ourselves
had been under charge of Venus until, by our
knowledge of the duplication we entered the higher
life ; and now we, in our turn, had acceded to the
charge of Mars. Accordingly we braced ourselves
up to our new duties, which mainly consisted
in a friendly watch over our lower and outside
brother, and the occasional expenditure of a testing
message, as with Venus, on past occasions, towards
ourselves. Mars, as being smaller than the earth,
had attained equilibrium earlier ; but any advantage
in that way was more than counterbalanced by our
larger size and our greater heat and light, our pace
being faster, after we had once begun. And again,
those orbs which, as mostly happened, had equili-
briated with a surplus of uncombined gases to form
an enveloping atmosphere, and of watery or other
vaporous elements to form rivers and seas, presented
in due time the varied phenomena of life and mind.
But our knowledge, although now so far advanced
beyond that of previous centuries, is yet, by no means,
quite complete in all these questions.
The accession of a new world to the higher life
is always the occasion of great and general rejoicing,
and of a good deal of energy-expenditure all about,
in dispersing the joyful and exciting news. In our
case, a goodly sized world, with many millions of
millions of human beings, had been added to the
census of the higher life. We received at once the
congratulations of our nearest neighbours. Mercury
and Vulcan, both of which, as well as Venus, had long
284 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
before entered this Higher Life ; and later on came
other greetings from further outside — from the Sirius-
ites, from several of the nearer Centaurites, from the
less remote of the Pleiadites, from the Orionsbeltites,
and various others. Venus, who, of course, looked on
us as her own child, gave us a number of introduc-
tions ; and by thus tacking on to her ready-made lines,
we saved, to a great extent, the heavy cost of opening
independent lines of our own, Venus, however, debit-
ing us, of course, a certain proportion of her first
outlay. These ordinary and economizing ways related
to the intercommunicating society which, in a com-
parative sense as to distance, lay immediately about
us. But it was expected of each component world that
it would extend the area of the higher-life society,
and promote its intercourse, by some measure of
independent action of its own ; and as, in the ardour
of our noviciate, we were resolved not to be behind in
our new duties, we prepared to open up lines to
far-off systems, in any of the heretofore less-explored
directions, and vast energy contributions were levied
accordingly.
Some Special Outside Acquaintances.
The acquaintances we picked up in all these higher-
life duties, and these missions of adventure, were
occasionally very striking. The very first which we
made, in the nearer society outside our system, and
coming to us through Venus, was one of Sirius's worlds;
and as this orb was in about the same position re-
latively, in its own system, as our earth was in ours,
we took rather kindly to each other, albeit our new
A THOUSAND "ilEAKS HENCE. 285
friend was a very big fellow compared to us, had had
a longer life, and knew a deal more than we did. We
have, in fact, ever since kept up mutual friendly
relations, as our widely circulated Sirius Herald,
every morning on my breakfast table, may serve to
show. We were much interested, through this case,
in the effects of size or mass, as well as time, upon
human progress, and ultimate attainments ; because,
as we very well know, the Sirius system, and for that
matter a good many others, are upon a much greater
scale than ours. But mere mass, although giving a
stronger material frame, does little towards the higher
intelligence, which depends more upon equilibriated
heat and light, the latter especially. But again,
speaking generally, the stronger the totality of force,
the better eventually the human prospect. A very
small world, such as any one of the inhabited asteroids,
with its slight gravity force, and attenuated elements,
will have a weakly human framework, as compared
with the broad squat figures and herculean strength
of our Siriusite friends. The heads, or rather the
brains, surmounting in either case, are not, perhaps,
in the abstract, greatly -different, but then they are
worked respectively by very different engine powers,
and there is a different progress proportionately.
Sirius was comparatively our next-door neighbour,
amongst systems of the outside universe. We had
some much further off acquaintanceships, and several
of the remoter ones were of our own independent look-
ing up. In most cases of the ordinary instances, we
joined in communications already established ; and in
this way, through Venus, or at times through other-
world friends outside, we were placed in connection
286 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
with a large surrounding society. But again, as re-
garded our own independent explorations, as time wore
on, improving our practice and increasing our energy-
wealth, we would send forth, on periodic occasions,
a grand mission of general search, on the chance of
its touching some system or world not already within
our pale. This was counted, indeed, high class
liberality, for few indeed of such costly missions
returned from their long journey with the results
sought for. They mostly either passed unnoticed
through space, or were arrested and destroyed by solar
photospheres or other forms of cross-electric force.
On one of these exploring occasions, however, our
missive entered a somewhat remote coloured-sun
system, and, by rare good fortune striking upon one of
its worlds which had already entered a higher-Hfe
society of its own vicinities, we were at once intro-
duced to a new friend, who, in spite of the costly
intervening distance, was disposed to reciprocate our
mission, and with whom, as it is pleasant to relate,
we have ever since maintained cordial intercourse. But
although this far-off system had not yet been in direct
relationship with our section of the higher life, we
ascertained afterwards an indirect connection through
another great section of universe to one side, with
which our section corresponded. I shall have no
little to say presently, about the remarkable coloured
system in question. But there is another subject
which it is now necessary to allude to ; and that not
only as an instance of marvellous progress in an age
full of such marvels, but also because of its now
intimate association with all this outside procedure
of our world. I allude to —
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 287
The Condition of the Press in these our
Modern Times.
The rise of the Celestial Press — for so we term the
press connected with outside life, as distinguished
from that of our own world — was not long delayed after
our entry into the higher life, and our thorough mastery
of the language of that life. We had the benefit of
Venus's experience to guide us, and indeed, chiefly
through that ready-to-hand experience, our press
interests were started with a fair correspondentship
in many star quarters. Soon the celestial news
became as copious and quite as engrossing as the
terrestrial. We have spoken of necessity as being
ever mother to invention, and this was never more
clear than in the case of the modern j)ress with its
comitless customers. Some of the successive steps of
progress form a curious retrospect, from the huge
cumbrous old-fashioned paper "broad sheet," of the
nineteenth century, up to the tiny four-inch square
microphied photograph, which is to-day doubled into
the waist-coat pocket, and all its full category of
news and events read with ease through the common
diamond magnifier.
Passing over various earlier stages, we come to
that great step of printing by reflection-photography ;
and upon that again follows the compound-reflector
system, by which copies upon copies, in broad sheets,
comprising each thousands of separate newspapers,
are reflectively flashed off with the rapidity of ordinary
light-travel, over the successively opposed surfaces,
laid out above or below, wherever space could be
commanded for the pm^pose. But as withal, still
288 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
more and more copies, and quicker and yet quicker
printing were wanted, as years and centuries rolled
on, there came at last the great art of transparent
printing, by which thousands of great sheets of
transparent material, consisting each of thousands of
separate newspapers, can now be simultaneously
permeated by the printing rays.
But having thus to deal with many millions of
copies of each paper, so easily produced, how next
are they all promptly distributed ? Let us enter a
news-office at early morn. The printing machine has
just laid down a large square mass, resembling a
great old paving stone — one of many more that are
quickly to follow. This square mass has been placed
beneath an electric-cutting apparatus, which at once
sej)arates it into many four-inch square piles, consist-
ing each of thousands of separate newspapers.
Magnetic rods next attach the adjacent corners of
these piles, and these so-charged rods, whose electricity
at once separates each little newspaper sheet, are
distributed to energy-mills all about outside, as far
and wide as any particular newspaper has taken up its
hand-delivery circulation. The passing public take
these papers from off the rod ; but as each paper is
not electrically released without a preliminary turn of
the mill-handle, the energy thus created and stored
constitutes the payment for the paper. As most
people are out in the morning for air and exercise,
this ready and simple method is found to answer best, |
alike for circulation and account-keeping.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 289
An Editor of the Time.
The "Editor's box," or, in modern sense, his own
little private energy-mill, with its own special handle,
usually stands, in modest rivalry for public attention,
alongside of these stores of his newspaper ; so that
any admiring reader of some recent talented or racy
editorial can practically show his appreciation by a
few turns, more or less numerous or forcible, at the
editor's mill. In exciting times, when some great
scientific or other question is being hotly discussed,
many a zealot in the cause, on one side or the other,
may be seen furiously pulling at one or other of these
editors' mills, to indicate his highest approval of the
latest editorials. Nor is it a bad addition to the re-
freshment of his deferred breakfast of a morning, for
an editor in these times, after the toils of the night,
to find upon his table the matter of a hundred Energy,
as that morning's collection from adjacent mills.
Editor-admirers, and other disinterested and
benevolent persons, will often, in this way, give up
gratis even the whole of the day's exercise-energy.
Healthy bodily exercise is differently managed now
from of old ; for even if there were now room upon
the world's surface for a " constitutional " in the old
sense, that is to say a health-exercise walk, nobody
would now dream of such unproductive waste of his
strength. Thus every hand's turn, or the turn of any
other human limb, is, in these busy and business
days, made productive of wealth. When people want
ordinary exercise now, they turn ordinary mills ; if
strong exercise, they go for all members upon tread-
u
290 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
mills. Brown and I dabbled in energy.-niill specula-
tion a while ago ; and it did fairly well at first, until
competition, which is the very bane of our day, made
the profits not worth the bother. Our modern fiscal
system is largely based on the same principle ; for by
an ingenious spring machinery beneath all our main
thoroughfares, every passenger, by his gravitation,
and forward impulse, contributes, at every step, to
a public energy-fund. The impediment, or the force
taken out of him is so small, that he is hardty con-
scious of the loss. And thus a substantial public
revenue is made up ; thus in fact we chiefly supply
our public messaging energy. That illustrates a
happy case of uncompeted profit-making. I only wish
I could secure a spell of it !
Our Outside -World Acquaintance — Coloured -Sun
Systems.
Black would tlu'ow out some curious speculations upon
coloured suns and coloured-light systems, — Authok, chap. i.
By far the most curious and interesting of our out-
side acquaintance was that coloured-sun system to
which I lately alluded. It constituted, indeed, the
very rare case of a tri-system, all three solar members
of which were coloured ; one of the suns being bluish,
another light greenish, and the third red, and a
rather significantly deep red too. In dimensions the
last was considerably the greater of the three. They
all three effected a complex circuit round each other,
each carrying its own varied family of planets with
their moons and rings, and of comets and meteorite
systems.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 291
Now these coloured systems are still, in certain
respects, a question of hot scientific dispute amongst
us, many of the purely white-light systems, such as
Sirius, proudly viewing them as the peculiarity, the
eccentricity, aye, point blank, the insanity of the
heavens. The coloured themselves take, of course,
a very different view of their case, and have various
theories of the special power and resource of colour,
compared, as they would say, with mere cold common
white light. Our coloured fiiends in question ap-
proached us, from the first, warmly in that view of
the matter, and were ready to be eloquent upon the
virtues of yellow, in connection with the slight, but,
as they gladly assm-ed us, the still quite appreciable
tint of our solar light. We did not, however, quite
respond, in the direction indicated, to this brotherly
warmth. While not behind in formulating the usual
com'tesies of intercourse, we rather, in effect, said, on
this part of the case, "drop it." In confidence
between ourselves, the subject is confessedly a delicate
one to those who, as m our oa^ti case, may be sup-
posed just upon the borderland of either party. Our
overzealous coloured friends, by way of putting our
rights beyond question, always remind us, that on
our first introducing the pure electric light, we
described it as "ghastly," "garish," and by other such
bad names, showing quite clearly thereby, that we
had been previously unaccustomed to pure cold white
light ; and that, as they stoutly asserted on our
behalf, we were, in common with themselves, of the
distinguished colomxd race — the true nobility of the
heavens, as they would put the matter.
But, again, when we, for our part, discussed this
292 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
rather excitable question with the haughty Siriusites,
and other pure whites, we rather made out that a
very shght yellowish was softer to the eyes, and,
while not really other than white light, was, in its
accommodating way, rather the superior.
Effects of Solar Colour.
It was certainly to be expected that colour, which
has such strikingly varied effect physically upon
health and growth, should have also its effect mentalh'
in the coloured systems. Indeed the coloured them-
selves at once admitted, nay, eagerly claimed this
distinctive result ; only that, while we whites saw but
peculiarity, they themselves had in view superiority.
Although science had explained, long ago, the super-
ficial, accidental, changeable, and perhaps, in many
cases, temporary character of sun colour, yet all this
had but little effect upon our coloured friends' lofty
theories about themselves. Nevertheless, however,
we of the white-light order made an interesting study
of their case, which we were the better able to do,
seeing that no small number of their worlds had already
entered the higher life as well as ourselves. Eepeat-
edly, indeed, had it been experienced, that mental
peculiarity from colour, amounting, in the deeper
hues, even to decided eccentricity, was not always
much of an obstacle to those scientific attainments
through which worlds were passed into the higher
life. And indeed it was in this view that our friends of
the tri-system became to us a most interesting study.
All three were, as it happened, not very much out
with each other in point of age, and not very different,.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 293
in that respect, from our own case ; and thus, in each
of their cases, as in our own, from one-third to one-
half of the inner planets, respectively, had already
entered the higher life.
A Ternaey Coloured System, Blue, Green, Eed,
AND Eespecth^ Pecullvrities of People.
In this remarkable ternary system, the blue and
green were respectively slight in hue ; but the red
hue, being decidedly strong, gave expectation of
marked peculiarity ; and, as we shall see, this expecta-
tion was not disappointed. The peculiarity of the
Blues was mainly limited to an extravagant pride, or
rather a proudly independent naturalness, showing
itself, for instance, in female di-ess, which, with them,
is always cut with exclusive reference to the form of
the wearer ; whereas with us, at least in the simple
old times a thousand years ago, to show off the dress
was always the prime consideration, and one also, as
I need hardly point out, of exemplary modesty and
humility as compared with those proud Blues.
The Greens, again, present a somewhat kindred
peculiarity in the sex ; for fashionable and high-bred
ladies, especially if they are otherwise personally
attractive, study the very plainest costumes, as in-
terfering least with the effect of personal quality
or superiority. Only the shy and timid, the ex-
cessively modest and distrustful of their own attrac-
tions, cover themselves with ornaments, in the two-
fold hope of diverting attention from themselves to
their jewels, and of making up for deficiencies which
they modestly acknowledge. Thus the most brilliant
294 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
dress-displays ever excite compassion by the obvious
modesty of the wearer. Many a poor toiling parent,
as he reluctantly yields to the irrepressible entreaties
of modest and diffident daughters, for the protection
of more and yet more magnificent dress and jewelry,
exclaims in despair that the very strength of the
family virtues is to be his ruin.
But Eed peculiarities were decidedly more serious
than all this, inasmuch as they affected morals and
religion. The religious views of our Eed friends are,
in substance, to this effect — that the future life is an
exact reversal, or corrective, of the usually gross
inequalities of the present ; plenty and happiness
here, resulting in want and misery there ; and vice
versa. Consequently the great object is to avoid or
escape any great happiness in this life, in view of
the inevitable Nemesis it brings in the life to come.
The Eed clergy are, in this way, laudably zealous and
constant in their denunciations and warnings, and
they ever find in the varying circumstances around
them, a grand field for their eloquence. This religion
is fittingly named "The Nemesis of the Grave;"
and the zealous activity of its adherents has long
since established it over the entire of the particular
planet I am now dealing with in the Eed sj^stem.
Many a man there, who, by his industry and intelli-
gence, has been successful in his world, attaining
perhaps to high consideration and public respect
for his qualities, or who, by a well-balanced mind, has
enjoyed far more happiness than falls to most other
peojole, has at last to face the terrible Nemesis that is
to follow inevitable death. Then, at least, if not
before, is the faithful pastor's oj)portunity, as he duti-
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 295
fully labours to induce a miserable death-bed, and
thus give one last chance to the poor victim's prospects.
On the other hand, transfer your view to the
triumphant end of some miserable wretch, who,
whether from misfortune or vice, has had neither
peace nor happiness all his life. As the last sands of
his glass run out, and his Nemesis draws near, crowds
of clergy and other pious people perhaps surround
his bed, in order to benefit by the edifying spectacle.
Even if the dying wretch be so degraded, as to be
utterly indifferent to his position and grand prospects,
that only makes these prospects all the surer and
brighter, and the surrounding comforters and congratu-
lators all the more pertinacious. On a late occasion,
when a dying burglar, worried out of all patience by this
sort of thing, at last drew his jemmy from under the
pillow, and cracked the skull of his nearest tormentor,
a deep but mingled wail ascended from all the com-
pany ; for while the wretched murderer had thus even
added to his accumulated claims upon Nemesis, yet,
sad to say, he had also suddenly sent a soul to its
account in that happy, duty- doing, and unanxious
state, the reversion of which beyond the grave was
only too assured. When we gravely argued with
these Eeds that such incurably vicious wretches
deserved rather to be punished, both in this world and
the next, they expressed utter horror and amazement
at such a view ; and asked us, in reply, if peoj)le
deliberately chose to be miserable instead of happy,
hated instead of loved, ugl}'- instead of beautiful.
It so happened that the particular planet we had
fallen into correspondence with in this Eed system
was, like ourselves, the fourth from its sun ; and the
296 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
case was the same also with our corresponding world
in each of the other two members of this ternary
system. Our rule, in fact, was to prefer introductions
to those worlds whose relative position in their re-
spective systems came nearest to our own. We have
found, by growing exj)erience, that, one thing with
another, in the greater similarity of circumstances,
we get on best with those so placed, each world
understanding the other better than in the case of
orbs either further inside or further out. Those
similarly placed worlds are indeed our "flesh and
blood " in a literal sense, to which most of the others,
on climatic and other grounds, affecting corporeal
composition, could not lay claim.
Its Striking Midnight Skies, and Effect upon the
Mind.
The midnight sky of each of these worlds, in their
respective systems, affords, to the respective peoples
beneath, a grand and impressive spectacle, which
could hardly fail to enter into the religious sentiment
in each case. To the Ked population, the two sur-
passingly bright stars, of respectively blue and green
hue, seemed to be the heaven and hell of future life.
The earlier records show green heaven and blue hell
to have been the prevailing orthodoxy ; but, after
long sway, this belief began to be undermined for that
which advancing intelligence rather favoured, namely,
a blue heaven and a green hell ; which doctrine, after
many years' contention, characterized by infinite zeal,
cruel contention, and bloodshed on both sides, ac-
quired at last the chief predominance.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 297
To the other two systems, again, there was a
■different and even still more striking nightly spectacle.
Let us take, for example, the case of the Greens. I
may be supposed to have a bias that way, if there be
anything in a name. After their own genially-hued,
and, to the Green mind, perfect-light sun had set, a
night scene at once beautiful and terrible succeeded
the day. On one side arose the pale blue star, of all-
surpassing beauty and brightness. On the other, a
fiery red monster, which glared down out of heaven,
conspicuously still greater in dimensions and powder
than even the other grand object, and wiiich, but for
the reconciling effect of habit, must have caused
intolerable terror to all beneath its rays. The great,
benign blue star was, of course, heaven, and the
fierce and still greater red was hell; and much
religious capital, and countless conversions, were
made of such powerful religious accessories. When
full mutual explanations had been come to, upon all
parties advancing in science and finally entering the
higher life, there remained, to the Eeds in particular,
the ungracious fact that their sun, much to their
surprise, if not to a stronger and sharper feeling, had
been regarded as the common hell of each of the
other systems.
In Green religion, as I have said, much w^as made
of this terrible red star, which was usually brought
in, by way of climax, in the sensational section of
Green preaching. It was thus common, with this
section, to regulate church hours by the time of
night when the red star would be best placed for
commanding effect; and thus there had arisen quite
a system of management of this effect. The well-
298 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
practised sensationalist had usually a movable
shutter in the church roof, which he regulated by
means of a string. At the fitting cHmax to which his
discourse was leading, the shutter would fly open by
a sudden pull at the string, and the terrible star
would shoot his baleful rays amongst the excited or
scared audience. Occasionally, and somewhat awk-
wardly, the string would snap under the too violent
jerk of the impassioned preacher, and clumsy be-
ginners would equally, perhaps, spoil their case. But,
nevertheless, there was quite a rivalry in conversions
in this way, and the more practised and adroit
preachers, in comiting heads for results, had a great
reputation.
But even long prior to the advent of the higher life,
which finally made sad havoc of these primitive ideas
and ways, there had been a party against, as well as
a party for, the shutter system. The former party,
feeble at first, had been gradually gaining strength
with the progress of science and of society. Shutter
preaching began to fail of its old power ; and at
length for any one to speak of the " eloquent and
zealous Shutter," as the sensational preacher used to
be concisely called, had become at last a questionable
compliment.
The coloured systems in general were zealous for
outside conversions ; and the remarkable system we
speak of was no exception, the Bed lights in particular
being active and universalist. Of course our o^ii
various religious bodies were more or less active in
this way also, and would send missions, under energy
credits, far and wide. The great Mormon Church
usually took the lead. When certain irreverent
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 299
planets laughed at her great poi^e, the pope made the
memorable reply, that people ought not to laugh at
Eeligion. But Bed missions, at great cost, were sent
even as far as our earth. Indeed, these were not
entirely unsuccessful, as some of our extremer
sectaries, under Red argumentative ingenuity, re-acted
into the Eed views, and became in turn their active
promoters upon their own home ground. These
would, for instance, follow our pious clergy and
missionaries into death-bed scenes, in order to exhort
them to leave alone some unhappy-minded object of
their visit, in his condition of comparative safety, and
attend rather to their own awful prospect, confronted
as they were by the inevitable Nemesis of their present
apparently bright and happy condition.
One of the latest Red-life incidents is reported to
us in one of the last members of the Red Times, a
daily print I regularly take in. A fellow of incurably
vicious temper, after murdering his wife, had con-
cluded by taking off also his mother-in-law, in order,
as he remarked with cool atrocity, to make one clean
sweep of the worry of the whole family concern.
Instantly a crowd, with one loud long wail of pity and
commiseration, conducted the unhapi^y wretch to the
comfortable Resanitation Retreat, provided for such
distressing cases. There a dozen old ladies at once
volunteered their services, taking this reprobate b}^
turns night and day, soothing his every feeling,
supplying his every want, and never for an unnecessary
instant leaving him alone. The cure, we are told, was
marvellously rapid. On quitting the Retreat, he was
overheard to mutter, and in no mincing way, that
all the mothers-in-law in the universe should not see
300
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
]iim there again. That meant, of course, that he
would murder no more of them — which was just, hi
fact, the result the Eed principle aimed at. Such
triumphs of the system, however, are very grudgingly
admitted by our clergy.
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 301
CHAPTEE XYI.
SCIENCE PEOGRESS IN A THOUSAND YEARS RETROSPECT. —
PART in. GRAND CLIMAX OF THE DISCOVERY, BY BLACK,
OF THE REDUPLICATION.
Old Wliite would say "that he should not wonder if our
descendants got outside the world altogether, and voyaged far
and away upon the Ether ocean." — Author, chap. i.
I OFFER here, in the first place, just a few preliminary
reflections on the scientific retrospect. Although our
nineteenth century scientists, especially towards the
end of the century, are reputed to have thought them-
selves very acute, and the progress of their time very
rapid and striking, yet, in looking back, and after all
due allowances, one is impressed by the dulness of
mental grasp about that time, even where there had
already been reached many of those elementary facts
which have since served us so well as leverage for
further steps of science-progress. Take, for instance,
the electro-light speed, which, after all, is simply
proportionate to speed of ordinary light as compared
to speed of sound, both of the latter being facts per-
fectly well known of old. Then, again, the electro-
light speed once determined, we were akeady halfway
302 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
to that other wonderful fact, so important in our
exploration of, and speculation upon, far-off space,
namely, that this speed is identical with that of the
action of gravity. And, once more, the transference
of energy, in form of motion, from ordinary matter to
ether, and vice versa — a department of science after-
wards so fertile of results, ought, as one would now
think, to have been caught up much earlier, seeing
that, even in the nineteenth century, the two media
were perfectly recognizable and distinguishable, and
their quality respectively — as, for example, in regard
to light and sound transmission — more or less well
known. Look at the result of this last step ! We
speak, as we all of course know, by means of air.
The air-energy is exactly transferred to the ether;
and thus the voice is carried, at electro-light speed,
in any desired direction, to be afterwards, at its
destination, retransferred to air, and to enter there the
listening ear, even billions of miles away.
This beginning of our hold upon, or rather say, our
actual handling of, ether, was followed by other
marvellous results, when we could deal optically with
that attenuated medium, isolating it from ordinary
matter, presenting an ether surface for light-refraction
and reflection, and thus, as by an ether microscope,
catching a hugely magnified view of ordinary atoms
and molecules. We thus knew, not only the shape-
and aspect of these bodies, but their intervening
distances; and thus also, by a compound equation
with other known facts, we found the interval between
ether points, as well as much other knowledge, in-
cluding, in particular, that of the reduction of gravity
itself, in certain directions at least, to the common
A THOUSAND YEABS HENCE. 303
condition of ordinary interchangeable energy. But
how simple all those things now appear, after the
ways of them are known ! and how we wonder at the
dulness of our ancestors of the nineteenth century, and
even later on, in not discovering them sooner !
Black's Grand Discovery : What was it ?
At length came the crowning discovery, by which
our electro -light energy could impart locomotion to
bodily substance, as it had previously been able to do
only to the ether vibration. This discovery was
reserved for my illustrious old fi'iend Black, the
renowned ex-chemical professor of our greatest univer-
sity, who has thus given immortality to his name,
and who still survives, in his honoured old age, to
witness the marvellous results of his magnificent
exploit. "When, long ago, the duplication of the
cross gave us the reversion-power that brought
responsively back to us the missives or messages
which we sent into far-off space, it was, even then,
shrewdly surmised, that a further step in the cross-
electric, completing, in fact, the full bi-cross, must
superadd, inter alia, locomotive power over corporate
substance. Indeed the more speculative minds, even
at this early time, advanced still further, even to the
idea of the ter-cross, with powers that seemed, for the
l)resent at least, and while within only bi-cross pur-
view, to be entirely superhuman. These earlier and
sanguine predictors have long passed away, and the
full bi-cross attainment has involved perhaps a longer
interval than they had, over-sanguinely, anticipated.
But when the great discovery we now have to deal
304 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
with did at last come, Iioav marvellous its simplicity f
How were we to advance upon the dui)lication ? Why^
simply, as Black showed, by the Eeduplication !
Black's intimation of his discovery caused the pro-
foundest astonishment, alike in other worlds as in our
own. Wonder was now often expressed that our com-
paratively small world should have thus pre-eminently
distinguished itself. But as to this, many calculations
have fairly agreed as to the practical advantage of a
happy medium, in combined light, heat, electricity,
and gravity, and the advantage of such mean state,
for business purposes at all events, over partial or
irregular predominations, or over even that general
superiority in some main elements, which no doubt
helps the purely scientific, and possibly, too, the moral
perception and development, while less favourable to
the vigorous business element. Rumours were not
wanting, too, that the discovery in question was not
really new in the universe, but had been long familiar,
as was much other such advanced knowledge, to a
still higher life than ours in that wide and varied
universe. We shall return, further on, to this most
interesting question. Meanwhile, let us follov; Black
in the steps he took after the public intimation of his
discovery.
Black's Practical Application — First Outside
Voyage.
By my worthy father's good business advice, I
myself not having yet even entered my teens. Black
got matters in readiness, so as to have a good start
over all possible rivals, before letting the public of the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 305
universe fully into his secret. For my part, also, I
don't see the use of throwing all one's possible good
things away. Our friend "White was of very great
service in giving practical effect to Black's discovery ;
and in fact this was the opening of White's grand
fortunes, and the beginning of all those magnificent
" Liners " which his joint stock companies have since
established for interplanetary voyaging and traffic.
To AND FROM THE MoON : PREPARATIONS.
Black boldly announced that, at a day and hour
which he named, he would launch off for the moon,
with such party as had the courage to accompany
him. The passage-money, too, as I recollect, wiiile
I clinked some small energy-change in my little
pocket, was no trifle. The very first volunteer to
present himself was White, then a youth, busily
engaged in what was still called " the coasting trade,"
or the shorter-range aerial voyaging. We have since
more appropriately extended the term "coasting
trade " to our entire globe, as distinguishing its limited
range from that wide trading outside which Black's
discovery at once opened to us. None was so helpful
as White to his principal, in preparing the little
barque which was first to navigate the boundless
ether ocean.
All this is but half a century ago. I was then a
schoolboy, and I still gratefully recollect the half
holiday given to all the neighbom'ing schools, mine
included, to enable us to witness the grand event of
the day— Black's departure for the moon. I was able
that day to squeeze my then much smaller bulk into
X
306 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
a good position. Before me was a long, narrow,
boat-shaped, slightly-made vessel, wholly covered in
like a tight cabin, and, as was explained to us, per-
fectly air-tight. By an ingenious arrangement, the
cabin remained air-tight, even with free ingress and
egress. This was soon to be put to proof, after
quitting our atmosphere; for then there was no longer
air pressure outside to balance that within the cabin,
so that any chink, however small, would prove
fatal to retention of the inside air. Of course, there
was ever the possible fracture of the fabric by any
passing meteorite or other discourteous fellow-traveller
encountered in outside space, in case our earlier pre-
cautions as to these encounters proved inadequate.
Towards obviating all such possible accidents, each
traveller, on this occasion, was separately provided
with his own independent air-breathing head-gear.
Indeed, it is not, even now, deemed safe to dispense
with this contingent safeguard. Inside the cabin, the
ah' was kept pm-e by the usual carbon-absorbents,
which we are so familiar with in ordinary ventilation,
and by a store of cross-electro consolidated oxygen.
But the great marvel of the case was the cross -
electro a^Dparatus, alike for protection and locomotion.
"We all gazed curiously at a slight, hardly perceiDtible,
aurora-looking mist or haze that surrounded the
vessel ; and, at the same time, we could just discern
the outline of the long electro-line that had already
been thrown out and happily^ anchored to the moon ;
thus allowing of the proposed voyage being effected
with more general certainty, more celerity, and at
much less energy-expenditure, than by the alternative
course of simple cross-electric projection from our
A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE. . 307
basic earth. No doubt we have, since these com-
mencing times, greatly improved in this latter art
and science, when we ha^ve had to find our way,
projectively, to bodies so much further off than the
moon — to bodies, in short, whose disks, reduced by
distance, were so hard to strike, even with the guidance
of the closest astronomic calculation, that the expense
of this other kind of '' fishing " would at times exceed
all its saving benefit.
The cross-electro x^rotective surrounding was, in
this first trial, and at much cost with the novel
experiment, quadruplicated for full safety against any
probable — almost even any possible — meteoric impact.
Not altogether without anxiety did the present travel-
lers contemplate the possibility of some rarely huge
meteorite plunging unchecked through all the four
successive layers of the cross-electric protective, and
dashing the whole concern to pieces. The momentum
of the smaller bodies, encountered in outside space, is
easily and safely dealt with, in being instantaneously
converted into, and dispersed as, ordinary electricity
by the successive protector batteries which encased
the vessel. The great unmanageable masses, although
doubtless existing and ever a possible danger, are so
exceedingly rare as to cause now but slight alarm,
more especially as we can now fairly herald and obviate
their approach by throwing out, and maintaining for
some distance ahead, a slight and comparatively inex-
pensive cross-electro outrider, whose disturbed pulsa-
tion almost instantaneously reports the intruder and
the precise direction and speed of his intrusion.
308 . A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Departuee and Voyage.
But to return to our subject. The hour of departure
now strikes, the travellers haying taken their seats in
their hermetically closed cabin, and the signal to
start having been given. Those of the onlookers who
stood near saw Black duly at his post, and grasping
with firm hand the electrics which were to regulate
the speed. The vessel is first to run upwards a short
way upon a sloping pier ; and having thus acquired
speed, is to be launched off into air, and so pursue
her further course. And now every eye watches
this testing transition from the terra firma of the solid
pier to the air and the ether. A simultaneous shout
indicates the moment of trial, and the i3rolonged
applause tells its success. In a few more seconds all
eyes are already straining to following the small and
rapidly diminishing object, as it wings its pioneering
way to an outside world.
The first voyage to the moon was, of course, an era
in our earth's history; and the telling of the story^
which was most deservedly secured, by a protracted
patent, to our illustrious Black, made equally an era
in its author's fortunes. The subject is, of course, all
thoroughly w^ay-beaten by this time, as the Lunar
'*Bradshaw" of to-day may indicate. Nevertheless,
there is still an interest in glancing back at a few
particulars of this great pioneering expedition. In
spite of all precautionary mental preiDaration, the
appalling blackness of space, on emerging clear of
the earth's atmosphere, was something barely en-
durable to unaccustomed feeling, and from which the
passengers gladly sheltered themselves within the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 309
stained and smoked glass department of their narrow
quarters. The blazing sun could not be looked at by
the unprotected eye, through the clear diamond
window-frames of the other part of the cabin. But
when the fierce direct solar rays were screened off
from the eye, all space was in the funereal darkness
alluded to, with the striking variety of countless
stars, above, around, and underneath, shining like
brilliant points out upon the great jet-black buckler.
The look back upon the earth, after twenty or fifty
thousand miles' distance, was indeed grand and in-
teresting in its entire novelty. The best observations
of that kind were made, however, on the return
voyage, when the passengers' minds had become more
used to the situation, and were, therefore, better com-
posed. Meanwhile the keenest excitement arose, as
the party approached the moon. Our colour-photo-
graphy had long ago perfectly realized to us the
moon's surface aspects ; but still many questions
awaited that critical solution, which only personal
observation could give. No difficulty was met with
in landing. Of course the party took to the area
that was sun-lighted for the time ; but they were
careful to land at first upon the margin of the heated
expanse, until, with their as yet unpractised hands,
they could adjust themselves, and their protective
apparatus, to the sun's scorching rays, untempered by
intervening atmosphere, and to the sun-heated lunar
ground. Each being duly arrayed in his independent
breathing apparatus, and other panoply, the vessel
was brought to anchor on the ragged projection of a
small crater, and the whole party at once landed, and
with eager curiosity commenced observations.
310 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Exploration and Condition of the Moon.
Of course we now know a great deal in that way
about the moon, to which we are ever excursioning
nowadays, much as our ancestors of a thousand year&
ago were wont to do to Brighton; but on that first
visit everything aroused interest and wonder. The
great shrinkings and deep and lengthened cracks of
the lunar surface enabled the more adventurous of
the party to make successful subterranean exploration,
and bring up from the depths no small lunar infor-
mation, geological and even historical. Already, even
from this first visit, could science conclude, in con-
firmation of previous theory, that the moon, millions
of years ago, had been fully peopled, having possessed
then an atmosphere and seas like our earth ; but that
air and water having been both nearly all absorbed
since, all the higher-structure animals and plants had
died off, leaving only a few dwarfed and stunted
animal forms, which hybernated with the cold of the
long lunar nights, and crept out into the light and
warmth of the long day. The lunar world was thus
found to be nearly cold as well as nearly dead. At
the bottom of the cracks and fissures lay the con-
tracted remnants of the lunar waters, nov/ possessed
by only a few surviving small fish, mostly blind.
A remnant of thin atmosphere rested upon these
waters, and gave breath to certain low-class, slug-like
animals, clustering in the fissure sides. During the
long lunar day, the heated and expanded air overflows
from the fissures in a thin and all but impalpable
layer. And thus we had been unable, from the earth's,
standpoint, to detect previously either air or water.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 811
The moon had balanced her forces and entered
upon organized life much sooner than our earth.
While the latter was in cloud-boiling condition, such
as Jupiter and Saturn still are, the moon was already
a peopled world. Her atmosphere had, probably, at
first, resembled our own, although much less dense,
but it was afterwards changed in composition, and
mostly absorbed. By help of the ready-made geo-
logical sections supplied by the fissm-es, we have been
able to trace both the advent and the departure of
man upon the moon. " The man in the moon " has
at last been established as a real personage, at least
in the past geological sense. He was of slighter frame
than his brothers of the earth, and also less in height,
and with a head, to our view, com23aratively large to
his body. After much subsequent research, we could
trace in the various exposed strata, the gradual ad-
vance of the lunar animal world, with its highest
culmination in man, and whence, by increasingly un-
favourable conditions thereafter, it gradually retro-
graded, and became, as at present, all but extinct.
Some of the larger of the lunar slugs had been
picked up on this first visit, with an eye to business,
by a brother in the great provision trade, who had
been ambitious and courageous enough to accompany
the pioneers. These curious creatures lived upon
moss-like vegetation in the fissures and cavities below
the lunar surface, and upon certain other and smaller
animals. From being afterwards prepared in a par-
ticular way, suggestive of old North-British curing
practice, they got the name of ''kippered lunites,"
and were so greedily taken by the market, that the
brother provisioner in question made a rapid fortune.
312 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
Many a gourmet amongst us, as he turned from what
he, perhaps rather fastidiously, is pleased to call
common laboratorial fare, to the naturally grown
kippered lunite, exclaimed with a slight alteration of
ancient Shakespeare, that " one taste of nature made
all stomachs kin."
Eeturn to Earth.
Our pioneering party spent a week upon the moon,
and being mostly men of high scientific attainment,
the week was a busy one, the moon traversing one
of her quarters meanwhile, and bringing the party
into the full glare of the fierce sunshine. All were,
however, prepared for every trial; and some of the
more youthful of the party, by way of practically
showing their complete and easy adaptation, became
quite frolicsome, as they exercised their limbs by
jumping up to fifty or sixty feet fi'om the ground, in
illustration of the comparatively small gravitation
upon the lunar surface. But at length they all pack
up, re-embark, and start back for home.
That home had been, indeed, during all this in-
terval, a grand object before them — so huge, with all
its land and water markings, and snow-white poles,
varied by the light but ever-passing clouds, that they
could hardly realize the said home to be nearly a
quarter of a million of miles away. Eeturning at
a comparatively swift pace, the chief interest now
centred in the rajpidly enlarging form of the earth.
No less than fifteen hours had been precautionarily
occupied in the outward voyage — a voyage we to-day
easily make in an hour, inclusive of slacks ! But the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 313
return was effected at much less sacrifice of valuable
time, even including the iDuU-up, as the vessel began
to near our earth, in order to behold at leisure the
grand spectacle of the ever revolving world. For
a whole hour together the party looked down with
profoundest interest upon the swiftly passing scene.
Black had timed their arrival so as to give this hour
until the landing-place had come round. And now
they are once again into downward motion, as they
see the place of destination approach, and make ready,
with all due precaution, to enter our atmosphere.
By a slanting movement of the vessel, in view of
obviating the rapid rush of the air under the axial
motion, the atmosphere was entered in perfect safety,
and the descent thereafter easily accomplished. Their
telescope had already revealed to the travellers a
waiting crowd beneath, showing that the time of
return had not been unexpected. The time at this
landing-place was just, in fact, about ten in the
morning, and most people were on their way to
business. The landing was safely effected, and upon
the very pier from which the party had started but
eight days before.
With this first expedition to an outside world, which
followed so promptly upon the discovery of the redu-
plication, I now conclude this chapter. In the next
I have to pass on to all the tide of external intercourse
into which our great discovery had launched us.
314 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
CHAPTEE XVII.
INTERPLANETARY PERSONAL INTERCOURSE.
GalloiDing off to suns and systems far outside our poor little
earth. — Authok, chap. i.
An altogether new era of enterprise now opens upon
our world. My old friend White dashes into the new
scene with characteristic spirit, and Dame Fortune, in
spite of her reputed fickleness, walks steadily by his
side. His were the earlier chances. Brown and I,
being of a rather younger generation, were not quite
ready at the first start, and so the first and richest
cream of the great new milk-pail had mostly been
skimmed off ere we entered upon the game. But,
after all, with the huge enlargement of business
that followed, we have, both of us, done pretty fairly,
notwithstanding all obstacles.
Yenus and the Yenusians.
One of the earliest incidents was a challenge from
Yenus, as to which should be the first to visit person-
ally the other. We accepted, of course, and forthwith
strained every effort to secure victory. What a grand
opportunity for both Black and White, who were at
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 315
once engaged, by our authorities in this matter, for
the pubHc account. It speaks volumes for the inter-
world courtesies of the time, that we had already so
fully communicated all om' discovery to Venus — in
common, indeed, with the universe generally — as to
enable our active neighbour and rival to challenge us,
even, so to say, in our own j)i'oper wares. But the
strain was full upon us for victory, and victory was
our due reward. At the same time we were only
just ahead. When we launched our shijD for this first
voyage to Venus, that of our rival was still on the
stocks. But it descended thence within a few hours,
and each vessel, crowded with its respective passengers,
was then advancing towards the other with a speed
of travel beyond all precedent. The two planets being
then in comparatively near proximity, this first voyage
was so much the shorter and less costly.
In spite of a strict look-out, neither j)arty had
detected the other, in passing upon the wide ether
ocean — a fact which does not say much for the calcu-
lations of those primitive ether-navigation times, and
compares strikingly with the precision nowadays.
The voyage occupied either party about eight days,
so that we were akeady in command of the higher
speeds. Speed was already, in fact, mainly a question
of courage, in facing, in this as yet unaccustomed
way, the risks of the encounter of meteoric bodies — a
danger from which, as previously remarked, we are
now, by experience and a still more advanced science,
better protected. This speed was, of course, vastly
greater than that of our first lunar voyage ; but, as
we shall presently see, we can now do still better
than that.
316 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
We extended a cordial greeting to our Venusian
visitors, and they, on their part, gave to our people
an equally loyal welcome. Our party stepped out
upon Venus mth much the feeling as though it had
been their own familiar earth, the air and gravity
pressure being nearly the same in both worlds, while
the temperature at the place purposely selected for
landing — namely, upon an elevated plateau within the
planet's arctic latitudes — was found extremely con-
genial, protected, as it was, by the thick clouds of
the Venusian atmosphere, from the blaze of the com-
paratively huge sun. The party from Venus, on the
other hand, as we might have expected, had made
for our tropics, where they found themselves fairly
comfortable, so far as climate was concerned, although
complaining that the reduced size and brilliancy of
the sun gave a blank character to our skies.
History and Features.
Venus, although rather smaller than our earth, had
probably not started any sooner under dynamic
equilibrium, seeing she was in the warmer zone of the
two. She had, however, with her stronger light-
supply, made rather better scientific progress, while
we of earth had admittedly taken the business lead.
Partly on that account, Venus had altered her natural
scenery less than we had done, under the pressure,
common to both, of a rapidly increasing po^Dulation.
We, in this operation, had more of an eye to mere
business and profit than our sister, who, like other of
the fuller-light worlds, was given rather to science
pursuit. But then Venus's surface had originally
A THOUSAND YE.OIS HENCE. 317
an extremer variety of hill and dale, mucli of which
still remained over the surface ; so that, amongst
elevations of twenty miles or upwards, we found we
could very fairly acclimatize om'selves. The some-
what different composition of her atmosphere was
really our only trouble, causing us a sickish feeling,
especially for a time at first ; as, in fact, our own
atmosphere occasioned in turn to the Yenusians. But
even that is braved by many on both sides, for the
sake of being free of the perpetual bother of the usual
protective apparatus, even under all latest improve-
ments. The Venusian man is hardly different from
ourselves, excepting some little in the physical com-
position, and the hue of the flesh and skin — a rather
pretty violet tint, due to the higher average temj)era-
ture, together with the difference of composition in the
atmosphere. From Venus let us now pass to the
neighbours on the other side of the way celestial,
namely —
Mars and the Marsians.
Although our first steps had been directed, as just
related, to Venus, much greater curiosity was aroused
by the prospect of our nearly simultaneous visit to
Mars. "What delayed us chiefly here was the suffi-
ciently near approach of the red planet's opposition,
so as to give us a shorter, safer, and less costly
voyage. In visiting Venus we had felt comx)aratively
at home, because we had been so long before in com-
munication, mentally, if not yet corporeally, with her
people. But, as regarded the Marsians, we were still
perfect strangers to such intercourse. We knew
318 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
already, indeed, the general aspects of their world,
and even of their own personal appearance, because
our duplicative photography had long ago given us, by
its marvellous perfection, every particular, so far as
pertained to the physical Marsian landscape. But
beyond all this, and whatever we might infer from
the expression of their faces and the works of their
hands, we knew nothing of the Marsian people.
Nor could we doubt that they, for their part, knew
still less about us, and would be inconceivably
amazed by our intended visit. We had good reason
to infer from all our observation of the photographic
transfers of the Marsian surface, that a certain very
considerable progress had been made there in art
and science. Amongst other signs of progress, we
knew that they had telescopes, apparently of a fair
power, for we actually saw their astronomers looking
through them, and often at our gibbous earth, as we
approached the nearest conjunction. We saw also
the busy life of their larger towns, and their mode of
navigating their seas, which, in the thin cold air of
the planet, were usually frozen far down towards the
equator. But the thinness and clearness of the air
saved Mars from much snow-fall, so that his poles,
relatively, were hardly so extensively white as our
own, or rather as ours used to be until we had latterly
mopped up so much of our old aqueous surface.
Physical Features.
The story of the first landing on Mars has inex-
haustible freshness for all time. Our party, of course,
steered for his equatorial region; and cold enough they
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 319
found themselves even there, the nights being, to our
feeling at least, intensely sharp, although, during the
day time, the sun had even an unpleasantly hot blaze.
The good common- sense expression of the Marsian
face, as previously familiar to us, had inspired sufficient
confidence as to our reception ; and, therefore, we
descended right into their midst, to their unutterable
astonishment. Having soon explained, to the great
crowd that quickly surrounded us, by signs and
sketches, whence we had come, our party got a warm
greeting, and were conducted to the best accommoda-
tion afforded by the neighbourhood.
The Marsian atmosphere we found so nearly to
resemble our own, that we could breathe it quite com-
fortably and safely ; but it was rather thin to our
lungs, resembling our own in fact, as it used to be, at
the height of a good many thousand feet from the old
level of the ground. Mars has a history, physical and
organic, differing in some important respects from
ours. Being both smaller, bulk and mass, as well as
colder-zoned, his dynamic balancing was attained
earlier ; but, for the like reasons, his subsequent pro-
gress was slower, so that both Venus and ourselves
have since quite passed him in the race. And it is
for us of his advanced sister Earth now to watch him
with even parental eye, as he toils, slowly perhaps,
but steadily withal, upwards to that higher life
which we have happily already entered.
Maesian Progress.
Knowing that Mars was thus our special charge, we
have, of course, felt from the very first of our trust
320 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
position, the greatest xDossible interest in his procedure
and prospects. Nor can we doubt that our visit, and
all the grand new prospect it oj)ens, has proved the
dawn of a fresh life to the little planet ; for we every-
where see over his surface what a busy scene of
scientific and general progress the last fifty years have
been to Mars, as compared with any like period pre-
ceding. Eailways were just only beginning fifty years
ago. So was gas-lighting. There were not yet any
telegraph lines, and electric science was quite in
its infancy. The vast spectroscopic field had not yet
opened to view. How different in all these subjects
now ! And happily it is all mainly the Marsians' own
attainment, as we, as well as other higher-life visitors
from outside, have studiously acted upon the higher-
life rule of leaving the lower worlds to make their own
way in science, in order that social and moral grada-
tions may naturally accompany the scientific. Prior
to Black's discovery, which now enables the higher
and lower life worlds to intermix, this due graduation
in general human progress was undisturbed and
uninterfered with in each case. But now there is
danger of unduly precipitating the condition of the
latter ; and consequently a higher-life rule had been
already enjoined, to the effect that there should be all
possible reserve towards the lower worlds upon the
great scientific questions involved in our higher life.
But leaving, for the present, science and such like,
which are all well enough at their time, let us turn to
the main chance. Evidently much solid business was
to be done with Mars, when we each knew the other's
ways and wants, and could manage to sj)eak to each
other. All this required time; and so all White's
A THOUSAND TEARS HENCE. 321
companies, with their mail packets and other great
liners, as we have them to-day, did not spring at once
into being. We found the Marsians to be good
common-sense people, notwithstanding the peculiarity
of many of their institutions. They had, indeed,
curiously mixed characteristics ; for while they were
a progressive people, ever disposed to learn, and to
profit by what they learnt, they at the same time
cherished and vigorously clung to many odd old
customs and prejudices.
Things Social and Political.
There were, in that respect, two great opposing
political parties in the planet : the one, called the Old
Party, whose instincts were mainly with the traditional
conditions, and who very grudgingly allowed of the
disturbance of change; the other, called the New
Party, whose views and instincts lay entirely the other
way, and who welcomed all new and progressive ideas,
and very often, to the great scandal of their opponents,
treated a good many odd but venerable old institutions
of the planet with but scant ceremony. This latter
party welcomed us with open arms ; and for that very
reason, if for no other, there was always something
of a grudging and suspicious feeling towards us from
the other side. But unquestionably, as both sides
admitted, a grand era had opened to the planet by
this personal communication with his great neighbour
and brother, the Earth.
Let me offer here still a few more words on Marsian
characteristics, preparatory to the personal visit which
I and my young friend are now on our way to pay to
Y
822 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
the planet. The whole of this small world is under
one Government ; and the character of that Govern-
ment, prior to the first arrival of our people, had been
in a state of slow transition, to meet the altered cir-
cumstances of its advancing society. The government
lies in the great Assembly of the Pobb-Likk — a body
which was composed of two chief divisions of the
population, named respectively the Principles and the
Accidents. The Principles were there, as the rule, by
right only of personal merit as to ability or public
usefulness ; the Accidents were there by the chance-
medley of the lot, quite irrespective of any personal
considerations. Happily for the planet's progress
there were many more Principles than Accidents.
The Principles, in short, were those who turned the
world round, and the Accidents were those who were
turned round with it.
But the curious part of the arrangement was that
the Accidents took precedence of the Principles.
The former occupied the highest seats of the As-
sembly, whence they, in a leisurely and dominating
way, surveyed the energetic and striving crowd of
Principles beneath. Many of these latter sought,
not unsuccessfully, certain minor honours and pre-
cedence amongst themselves, which lifted them a little
above the indiscriminate mass of their own body,
and a step or two upwards towards the high and
special elevation of the Accidents. But the pure
Accidents up there rather looked down upon these
intermediate upstarts, and, in the past especially, had
been extremely jealous and exclusive as regarded the
admission of mere Principle to the sacred ranks of
Accident. But latterly, the growing needs of the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 323
State, and the help it wanted from the ability, vigour,
and general usefulness of the Principles, had more and
more forced up the latter towards the Accident ranks.
Still there was much Marsian pride in the purity of
Accident. The maintenance of the independent self-
superiority of Accident over Principle was the founda-
tion stone of Old Party sentiment.
By certain adaptations of the public law, the Acci-
dents, as a body, were insured an adequate provision,
without having to depend on any mere personal
qualities or exertions ; this provision being, in many
cases, something of quite enormous magnitude. The
head of the great Pobb-Likk, in particular, was always
a pure Accident. Any attempt to introduce Principle
in that high quarter — any proposition to select personal
suitability for the high office in question, would have
at once convulsed the planet over its entire circum-
ference.
Such was the political condition of Mars about the
time of the first visit from our earth. A great
struggle had recently taken place between the two
parties, on the question of admitting a much larger,
and more equally adjusted, section of the Principles
into the Pobb-Likk. This ended in the subsequent
measure known as the great " Tea Mrofer," if I may
thus attempt to lay down the difficult Marsian jargon.
The New Party had been able just barely to carry this
great change, the opposition of the Old Party having
been most bitter, vehement, and protracted. And yet
already, even at the time of the first visit from our
earth, it was held, by common Marsian consent, to
have been a proper and wise step, from which retreat
was now as undesirable as impossible. And such has
324 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
been, in fact, the mingled peculiarity and common-
sense quality of these Marsians, in all their great steps
of progress since. The Old Party has ever met each
successive step by a loud note of opposition and alarm ;
but the step once taken, all parties seem to compose
and adjust themselves to the new order, and freely
to admit that, one thing with another, it suited the
planet's actual condition better than what preceded it.
We found ourselves in a general accord with the
views and aims of the New Party, and the latter were
not slow to use that fact to some purpose in their
battle for progress and the new ideas. The Old Party
did not deny an abstract superiority to some of the
new ideas, which, with vexatious incessancy, were
dinned into their unwilling ears ; but they would
ever plead that Marsian conditions were suited to
Marsian circumstances, and that Marsian peculiarities,
even allowing that they were such, ought to be left
alone, more especially by outsiders, like us of the earth,
who were differently circumstanced.
Amongst odd peculiarities they have happily got
rid of in these recent years, none was more striking
than the old and prevalent Marsian idea that food
should never cross a boundary. They could readily
see the advantage of freely sending one place's super-
abundance to another's scarcity ; but if a boundary
happened to intervene, that, as they thought, could
no longer be done with advantage. When we advised
them simply to shut their eyes to the existence of any
boundary-line, as though not present, and so to go
on freely exchanging, they shook their heads, or
stared alternately at us and the boundary in blank
amazement. But a dozen years later a decided
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 325
change began to come over Marsian views and counsels
in this respect, chiefly at the instance of a leading
Marsian statesman of that time, by name Leep-
Trebor-Eis, whose somewhat sudden conversion was
doubtless attributable to our influence. I recollect
meeting this distinguished Marsian, when uj)on a
business trip to the planet, in the interests of my
then commencing provision trade. I marked his
extreme attention to my argument, and also that,
shortly afterwards, he introduced and carried his
great measure for allowing food always to pass freely,
boundary or no boundary.
But this, to us, simple-looking measure, produced
a political convulsion in the planet, which was hardly
equalled even by that of the preceding great Tca-
Mrofer. The Old Party, to which Leep had belonged,
was rent to its very foundation, one section of it
emerging, on this special food question, and joining
another and larger section from the New Party, under
the name of Leepites, a party which lasted for some
years. And even now, although all parties have been
long agreed as to the propriety and benefit of this
great measure, by which the planet's food-distributing
policy has ever since been guided, and although its
author has been a whole generation dead and gone,
yet the strong feeling of the time partially survives,
and the extremer sections of the Old Party have
hardly yet forgiven the renegade, as they call him,
and arch- betrayer of their party's anti-change and
anti-progress principles and efforts.
Another old Marsian peculiarity regarded the police
protective arrangements. These were in some respects
fairly good, but the effect was ever liable to be sadly
326 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
marred by the want of a directing head. Conse-
quently, the most curious, troublesome, and absurd
ways had crept into practice. For instance, if any
one had committed a wrong upon another, the police,
instead of making straight for the wrong-doer, arrested
first the injured party, and compelled him to secure
and punish the other. This was such additional
expense and suffering to the victim, that the one
would dread and shun the authorities almost as much
as the other, and thus the wrong-doer could often
make a clean escape. The New Party had been long
urgent to end this anomaly. Indeed, both parties had
long admitted it as such ; and at last, but only the
other day, the step in the right direction began to be
taken, by appointment of what was called the
Eotucesorp-Cilbup, or direct catcher and trier of the
wrong-doer.
Amongst peculiarities which still reign, in spite of
all efforts of the New Party, the most striking, per-
haps, is the very ancient custom and law of giving
the whole of a family inheritance to some one member
only, instead of dividing equally amongst the whole.
On the death of the head of a family, the State
Lottery Box, which is called in, determines, by the
cast of the dice, which individual of the family is to
enjoy the whole property ; while all the other members,
so far at least as the public law is concerned, may
be at once turned out destitute upon the highway.
Although this ancient custom seems now at last
tottering to its fall, it is still a most tender point
with a formidable section of the Old Party, which
would fain maintain its existence, in spite of the ever-
increasing force of opposing argument and opinion.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 327
The Old Party feel, in fact, that they are thus losing
one of the main props of their fundamental political
sentiment — the supremacy of Accident over Principle.
Other Members of our Solar System.
Naturally enough, some little time elapsed ere our
excursion enterprise extended beyond Venus on the
one hand, and Mars on the other. Not only was
the greatly increased distance a heavy expense in
both time and money, especially to our earlier inex-
perience, but the excessive heat in the one direction,
and the excessive cold in the other, involved, to our
particular frames and feelings, much further costs,
as well as our being habilitated in most cumbrous
apparatus, with the adaptation and management of
which we were not at first by any means so famihar
as we are to-day. After a further interval, however,
our adventurers of the earth did set foot upon Mercury ;
and this successful effort was followed by our reaching,
in spite of navigation dangers, one of the larger of
the countless planetoids circulating between Mars
and Jupiter ; to be happily followed, after a further
time, by our advance outwards, through all that
rather intricate planetoidal archipelago, as far as the
magnificent system of Jupiter. There we soon picked
up acquaintance with the first satellite, lo, rather
larger than our moon, with whose fairly intelligent
people we have since carried on a regular and profit-
able trading, only second in importance to that carried
on with Mars and Venus. Some interesting features of
"the first Jovian," as we call this his nearest moon,
I shall have presently another opportunity to narrate.
328 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
We did not experience from Mercury the same
vigorous rivalry in the new navigation as had come
to us from Venus. The rule bore here, as it is
inferred to do in general, that the stronger the solar
light, the less does business, and the more does
science and other such high consideration, influence the
mind and purpose. It was ever, at bottom, business
purposes and business prospects that supplied the
chief vigour to our progress-. Mercury was com-
paratively deficient in this kind of vigour, and more
addicted to purely scientific and other mental pro-
gress, carried on independently for its own sake.
Let me only add, in conclusion, that we have, since
these earlier efforts, successively reached all the
members of our system, even, many times over, to
far outside Neptune, and even, some few times, at
science's instance, to the smaller planet still outside
of Neptune, and outside of all in the system, whose
discovery dates only within the last thousand years,
and whose remarkable conditions — the gathering up,
as it were, of the outer margin of our original nebula,
are already so well known to our science. So much
for the outer voyaging, while inwards we have pene-
trated as far as the sun himself, as I shall have to
tell further on. The interests of science, even with
us Earthians, have at times risen above business
considerations, seeing it is difficult to make a voyage
to these far extremities, even to Neptune, or indeed
even to Uranus, commercially profitable, in the want
of human population in either j^lanets or moons, to
help us with their labour in the way that we find so
advantageous with Mars, the First Jovian, and some
others.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 329
CHAPTEK XVIII. -
OUR FOREIGN TOUR, RESUMED FROM CHAPTER IV. THE
OUTER CIRCUIT.
The Yenus folks had concluded that our cold earth could
not possibly be inhabited. — Author, chap. xix.
Having now given to the reader my thousand years'
retrospect, I return from its long, but, as I hope, not
uninstructive digression, to the business tour in which
I was engaged on behalf of my friend, young Brown.
I don't mean to assert that I had finished my history
when, on the fifth day, by the slacking of speed, and
other well-understood indications, I was made aware
that we were nearing Mars ; for, in fact, I was busy
over the work pretty well all the rest of the time of
our tour ; and a very pleasant occupation for super-
abundant leisure it proved to be, to say nothing of
the prospects of publishing profits. Eegarding this
last, we earth folks, as I have repeated occasion to
mention, have always, at bottom, an eye to business.
But now I bundle up my papers, and pass at once
into the main cabin to see what is going on.
There I found all the passengers gazing after little
Phobos, who had just whisked past us in his rapid
830 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
pace of seven hours and a half around Mars. This
curious Httle moon used to be one of the chief dangers
of early Marsian navigation ; for as we mostly steered
for equatorial landing-places, we were thus just in the
way of the Phobos orbit, and liable to his suddenly
rounding upon us. To-day, indeed, the pilotage
hereabouts is all that can be desired for precision
and safety ; but this was not quite the case for some
years at first ; and the danger was aggravated to such
excursions as were other than of a strictly business
character, seeing that, as the party drew near to
Mars, they were apt repeatedly to pull up, in order
to watch more leisurely both the revolving principal
and his two very close little fly-round moons. In
this way, on one occasion, a large school party, on
holiday, made a narrow escape of being crashed into
by Phobos, of course to their utter destruction.
Arrival at Mars : Eeception.
There was, as we quite expected, no small attempt
at demonstration at our arrival, with banners flying
and drums beating. All this was at the instance,
mainly, of the New Party, for our visit had been fully
anticipated, as I must now proceed to explain. Our
earth having charge of Mars during his upward pro-
gress towards the higher life, any notable personage
from amongst us, who happens to be going to that
planet, is usually endowed with an official and repre-
sentative character, for the time being, in the Marsian
relationship. I being an ex vice-president of the
great society which has had Marsian matters more
directly in hand, and being also, as I may, perhaps,
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 331
assert without vanity, somewhat of a leading person
generally in my world, was duly awarded this high
position, so soon as it became known that I was
about to visit the planet. But this being a relation-
ship altogether externally imposed upon Mars, and
without any reference to his own consent, our self-
assumed position towards the planet was consequently
of a rather delicate kind, and might be made some-
what ruffling to Marsian susceptibilities, were it not
for the extreme care and consideration with which we
were always wont to act.
A delegation met us at the landing, to invite myself
and friend to a grand public dinner, which was then
and there fixed for the last day of our proposed stay,
Marsians can do nothing of public moment without a
public dinner. Having duly accepted, we at once
betook ourselves to the business part of our mission,
in view of some remainder of our stay being devoted
to such duties of my higher and representative mission
as might fall in my way.
Business.
There is already an immense business between the
two planets ; for besides the fact that various metals
and paetalloids, and chemical elements generally, are
relatively scarce or otherwise in one or the other
planet — a circumstance which makes indeed the chief
foundation of the entire interplanetary trade — we had
much that was peculiarly Marsian commerce. Not
the least section of this commerce comprised a loop-
line of White's great interplanetary liners, which
diverged to the two little moons, to which the Marsians
332 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
ever crowded in thousands, by way of holiday trips,
as well as for the magnificent views they thus got of
their own comparatively huge revolving world, whose
vastly surpassing mass, as thus seen, was already
the subject of much arousing Marsian poetry. This
again gave rise to large business in the artificial
breathing apparatus, as neither of the moons had
other than the veriest ghost of a thin atmosphere.
All this apparatus business, as well as that of the
extensive Marsian phosphate diggings, together with
the general interplanetary energy trade, belonged to
young Brown's hardware section, and kept him as
busy as a bee during our stay upon Mars.
Politics.
The New Party were, as I have said, specially
jubilant on the occasion of this visit, and were fain,
on this particular opportunity, to make political capital
out of my presence, as it happened most timely for
their coming struggle to get rid of the ancient lottery-
box system. They had now, in fact, some good hope
of at last completely accomplishing this great result
during the ajDproaching session of the great Pobb-
Likk. I could not, of course, but side here with the
New Party ; and they, for their part, were by no
means tender in coercing me, whenever they had the
chance, to declare for their views on this and other
questions. Thus, when challenged on the subject, I
must needs assert that Accident was inadmissible to
the higher life, where only Principle could live and
reign. Statements and admissions of this kind were
not at all to the mind of the Old Party, even although
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 333
they might concede that abstract perfection was not to
be had on Mars any more than elsewhere in these
lower worlds, and that in heaven possibly society might
be able to dispense with that present firm support
which it derived from the system of Accident.
A Marsian Public Dinner.
The dinner, which, as I afterwards learnt, proved
in its way an immense success, was attended by a
good sprinkling of Accidents ; for the New Party is
by no means confined to the other class any more
than the Old Party is exclusively composed of Acci-
dents. Indeed, this latter party consists of Accident-
supporting Principles even much more largely,
numerically, than of Accidents. I was interested,
not to say amused, at the dinner, to mark the
deference paid to the Accidents, quite irrespective
of anything personal. One of these, who was placed
next to myself, as the seat of highest honour, I
found to have hardly an idea in his head, and to
be much in my way in conversing with other and
better filled heads beyond him. And yet, with these
odd Marsians, it would have been quite a breach of
usual propriety and courtesy to have put this helpless
Accident anywhere else.
This dinner made rather a memorable occasion.
There was much mutual compliment flying about on
all sides. New Party views were decidedly uppermost.
But as some of the speechifying was considered rather
extreme for average Marsian opinion, we were warned
to prepare for a counterblast. This was to come
from the leading journal of the planet, the famous
334 A THOUSAND TEARS HENCE.
and ably edited Semit Elit, a paper which, as indeed
its name indicated, sought to adapt itself always to
the times in which it lived. With an Old Party
instinct, it was yet, ostensibly, with the New Party,
and was ever ready to throw overboard, to the wolves
of that party, whatever in social and political progress
seemed no longer possible of retention. Thus it was
not seldom changing front, in admitting, and even
triumphantly arguing for, what it might previously
have sternly opposed. The journal was thus at times
a source of great irritation to the Old Party, although
it might be claiming, all the while, by so wise and
prudent a line of policy, to be really their friend.
Marvellous, indeed, had been of late the advance of
New Party ideas. A popular refrain of the Old Party,
which, at the time of our earth's first visit to Mars,
might have been enthusiastically chorused at Old
Party gatherings, was now sadly in abeyance even
there, and, with still worse fate, had assumed only
jocular significance with the New Party. The couplet
in question might be thus freely translated : —
Dang Principles, Pobb-Likk, and all their circumvents ;
But leave us still our Lott'ry Box and Accidents.
An Attack : a Marsian " Leading Article."
From the dinner -table young Brown and I made
direct for our interplanetary packet, being bound next
for the First Jovian moon. Feeling somewhat tired
with all our last day's doings, we both went straight
to bed ; and I, for my part, did not re-awake until we
were well-nigh a fourth of the way to the outer edges
of the asteroids on their Marsian side. We had
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 335
heard, just before leaving, that the influential Semit
Eht was to thunder against us, in its first leader,
next morning, by way of rebuke and protest, for our
earth's intermeddling with Marsian affairs. As a
copy of the paper, with the article in question,
reached us at lo by the succeeding mail, I may as
well give here some idea of its attack. The Marsian
newspapers, I may here also remark, are the oddest
and clumsiest things imaginable, being all printed
separately from types, and upon such huge expanses
of heavy paper, that a mere few hundreds of them
would make a fair load for even a strong back. Their
circulation is rarely much above a hundred thousand
respectively, and over this petty handful of copies
they will be pulling away for whole hours of a morn-
ing, with a huge and cumbrous iron printing machine.
"What a contrast, in this respect, between the processes
of the two planets ! And what, for instance, would
these Marsian slow-coaches say to our most recent
diaphanous-reflector process, which flashes off a
million copies per second !
Well, the article in question begins, somewhat
warily, in high compliment to our earth, "that much
vaster and brighter world, from whose advanced
science Marsians had admittedly so much to learn,
and whose illustrious citizens had honoured them by
frequent personal intercourse." Then followed a
deHcate laudation of the reader's humble servant, as
** one who was by no means the least of the rival
multitudes of the great of his own great world — a
conspicuous personage alike publicly and privately,
as conducting, with eminently successful ability, an
extensive business of his own, of far ancestral inherit-
336 A THOUSAND TEARS HENCE.
ance, and comprising, perhaps, the most important
section of all commerce." My understood ambas-
sadorial character was then alluded to, and all due
respect from Marsians claimed for it.
But, again, on the other hand, as the article went
on to say, that great earth is a world of one set of
circumstances, and Mars of quite another, each being
good in its own way, and each having to work out for
itself its own particular problem and destiny. Mars
did not presume to impose his ideas of things upon
worlds outside, and he had therefore all the better
right to hold that outside worlds should not inter-
meddle with him. Then followed some allusions, in
the sarcastic vein, to the "so-called higher life,"
whose principles and prospects were being thrust,
nolens volens upon Marsians. That higher life, like a
certain other promised outside paradise, said the
article, might not unlikely suit Marsians in the life
hereafter, or possibly even in this life, if they could
all transfer themselves to some differently circum-
stanced world. But let Marsians be content to go
along in their own independent way, re23elling and
even resenting impertinent and unasked-for outside
interference, from whatever quarter. Marsians had
no bad world of their own, and their duty was to
maintain those ancient institutions under which the
planet had grown so powerful and prosperous. They
had no need, on the whole, to envy any worlds out-
side of their own, even although such worlds very
possibly felt, or at least affected to feel, superiorities.
Then alluding, in a tone of rising and culminating
indignation, to a modern upsetting, traitorous habit,
even amongst themselves, of judging their ancient
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 337
institutions and ways of things by purely abstract
standards, and a vulgar habit of testing every vener-
able traditional heritage, with ail its rich incidence
of peculiarity, by the mere practical-merits ideal of
to-day, as though a thousand years' life had no merits
or rights of its own to set up, the article, in conclusion,
went on to say, that the challenge, even on the cold
modern basis of '' the merits," was fearlessly accepted.
Yes, even on the merits, let the battle then be finally
fought out. Far too much, nowadays, was it chat-
tered, with all the cheapness of irresponsibility and
inexperience, that our Lottery-box might be safely
swept away ; while a profane levity of spirit would go
even so far as to look slightingly upon our grand old
system of the supremacy of Accident. But the too
readily assumed injustice of the public law, in the
first of these cases, might be fairly met by the con-
sideration, that the lucky one of the family, to whom
the cast of the dice gave all the estate, was probably,
with his plethora of means superseding all further
need for either mental or bodily exertion, with his
enslavement to all the absorbing social demands of
his position, and with possibly some twinge of con-
science embittering all, not really one jot happier,
or one tittle less miserable, than the rest who were
made destitute. Then, again, as to their ancient and
dignified institution of the Accidents, did it not strik-
ingly resemble the fairy's wand, which called, peace-
ably, into ready-made existence, all the hill and dale
scenery of the Marsian system of rank, instead of the
one monotonous dead level of mere Principle, varied
only, perhaps, by the alternative of a tempestuous
ocean of everlasting rivalry, strife, and unrest, if rank
z
338 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
and honour depended upon mere personal considera-
tions ? The radical blast of these days might try its
best to strip Marsians of the warmth and security of
all this old accustomed clothing ; but the stronger it
blew, the more tightly and lovingly would they still
cling to their venerable Lottery-box, and their sacred
hierarchy of Accident.
Arrival at Io, the First Jovian Moon.
As we had taken the express to lo, the very much
longer voyage on which we now embarked was to be
made at much greater relative speed than we had ex-
perienced to Mars. We were able, also, from the rela-
tive positions of Mars and Io at the time, to make
a pretty straight course to the latter, which avoided
almost entirely the dangerous intermediate archipelago
of the ultra-zodiacal planetoids. This and the other
Jovian moons, in their somewhat cooler zone of the
solar system, and with their own primary's heat still
tempered by thick cloud envelopes, have been for-
tunate in a more prolonged life than our satellite ;
but they have not, by any means, made the same
rapidity of progress that had set in upon our moon
for its briefer career. The first and second Jovian
moons have both attained indeed the culminating
human stage ; but only in the first is there as yet a
fair degree of civilization, the second being still toiling
its way through the usually protracted stage of flint-
chipping. The third moon, Ganymede, although
considerably the largest of all, and therefore, so far,
of promising ultimate future, is as yet only up to
the anthropoidal stage, while the fourth, Callisto, is
still further astern.
A THOUSAND YEARS ETENCE. 339
Physical Features.
lo being not very much larger than our moon, the
human form, as developed in both worlds, had been
nearly similar, being somewhat slighter than that of
the Marsians, while the latter was still short of that
firmer bone and figure due to the greater gravity of
the earth. lo, as regarded that hemisphere of her
body, which is always turned to Jupiter, averaged a
temperature but little above our own. Her tropical
apex, however, with huge and glowing Jupiter always
right overhead, proved, to our feelings, rather a warm
berth. We felt more comfortable about three-fourths
down latitude, towards the edge of that other and off-
hemisphere, which never gets Jupiter's w^armth, and
which is consequently a cold desolation, occupied by
inferior organisms, and by mere scattered trading
colonies of the people of the other and more favoured
hemisphere. Away down the lunar latitudes just
alluded to, and with the shelter of a hill between us
and heat-radiating Jupiter, this said latitude had for
us quite a pleasant temperature. The sun, at the
great distance of the Jovian system, did not seem, to
us at least, of much comparative account. He was,
indeed, a brilliant little orb, throwing off a good deal
of light, but as regarded heat altogether second to the
mighty overshadowing planet just at the door.
Those leading First Jovian features, namely, the
small size, the moderate light-supply, and the ample
and genial heat, were all duly reflected in the par-
ticular human attainment. The people were not
ambitious, and still less scientific, but quiet and
plodding, utilitarian, and business-like throughout.
340 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
All progress and discovery was ever at the instance
of the practical. They could hardly understand mere
science for its own sake. Having discovered some
time ago, by a happy accident, the principle of the
telescope, they had since applied the instrument
chiefly to profitable business and amusement — one
leading amusement consisting in the enlarged view
of the vast overhead cloud-mass agitations of Jupiter,
a spectacle especially attractive to children. When
we tendered to them any explanations about astrono-
mic systems, they always asked for some practical
outcome, and if nothing promised in that way, their
attention and interest soon ceased. But withal we
ever found them excellent, simple-minded, direct
business people, ever ready to truck and traffic with
us. For some time at first our profits from these
people were fabulous, as some of our very cheapest
wares, such as, for instance, our cross-electric
matches, striking, as they did, a brilliant light, which
lasted for a few minutes, or even hours, according to
power-accumulation and price, were intensely valued
by them.
Life proved rather pleasant to us here, and in more
respects than those merely of climate, the fact being
that we Earthians are greatly looked up to, and held
in most flatteringly reverential consideration by these
simple Jovians; for, if they care little about our
science for its own sake, they yet readily see our
power to apply it to all sorts of useful and profitable
things, and they are struck with awe and admiration
accordingly. Many of our people now live here for
weeks and months together, in making business
arrangements. There is quite an old home-like
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 341
aspect in some of the physical features, there being
much of hill and dale on the small scale, with rivers
and small lake expanses, all, however, being of fresh
water, without the variety of our salt seas. Owing to
the comparatively great heat directly under vertical
Jupiter, the water there is constantly and rapidly
evaporated, passing in clouds away to the cold edges
of the hemisphere, and ever returning, by Jupiter's
attraction, in cool and gurgling streams, which are
the great resource and daily enjoyment of the popula-
tion. The Jovians are fond of bathing in these
pleasant and invigorating waters. Their doctors
strongly prescribe this custom, and parents superadd
their authority, for the race is thus kept in health
and strength, to the great advantage of its business
and earning powers.
Speaking of the power of Jupiter's attraction over
the waters reminds me of another phase of it, which
made lo's apex uncomfortable to us on other grounds
than that of mere heat. We felt up there a lightness
of foothold, as though there were no terrajirma beneath
us ; and even when we retreated towards the cooler edge
of the hemisphere, Jupiter kept pulling at us, with
the effect of causing us to stand at a very perceptible
angle to the perpendicular. From the same cause
those loans, who had adventured to the opposite apex
of their globe, brought word of the mysterious down-
ward strain upon their frame, which made business
labour almost impossible. The journey to the
opposite apex w^as to them, in fact, simply an ex-
hausting climb up a huge mountain, the drag and
difficulty of which increased with every mile of ascent,
as the weary and distressed travellers came into more
342 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
and more direct line with Jupiter's and their own
lesser world's gravity. Thus this practical people got
acquainted with gravity, through its business incon-
venience to themselves ; and they were interested in
our explanations of the law of its action, and more
especially of the obviating processes, through our
ordinary force-convertibility. But this latter was
much too deep a subject, and, above all, much too
costly an agent, for the loans to think of it.
Manners and Customs of the Ioans.
Their regular bathing habit is connected with one
of their most remarkable peculiarities. They all
bathe quite publicly, and usually without a particle
of clothing to either young or old, male or female.
But this is simply because bathing is most pleasant
and beneficial in this free way, and in no sense
whatever from any want of modesty or true propriety
of feeling. On the contrary, the Jovian lady, and
especially the young maiden, would shrink, more even
than our own females, from advances of the other
sex. The Jovian peculiarity is, that no importance
whatever is attached to the mere seeing of each other.
The most modest of Jovian damsels, so far as a
question of modesty is concerned, would not have the
slightest objection to be merely seen, whether clothed
or naked, and by any number of persons of either sex,
provided she is secure against touch or contact. These
simple Jovians, on the other hand, are much scanda-
lized by the account of certain of our customs — asking,
for instance, how our females can be deemed modest
and respectable who freely shake hands with the other
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 343
sex, and speak directly to men, while standing so
close as even to touch, let alone being enveloped in
their breath. They are also highly amused at our
scruples about being seen naked. What possible
material harm, they say, can come to us of that ?
Clothing is worn by the Jovians simply according to
feeling, and the young and vigorous, especially in lo's
warmer latitudes, are usually without it. But ex-
posure to any contact, even to that of the breath of
the other sex, is an impropriety, or, as the case may
be, a discourtesy or affront to the female. Of course,
all respectable females avoid crowded places as much
as possible. But even in such places a high courtesy
prevails, to which the other sex can usually trust, for
every well-bred man scrupulously clears the way for a
passing female.
To return to the bathing, the morning bath always
begins the day. The morning and day, by the way,
are arranged after a fashion of their own by these
Jovians, adapted more or less to what we would be
apt to call the inconveniently irregular risings and
settings, or rather appearances and disappearances,
of their small sun. But these to themselves, accus-
tomed to it all, and with nothing else or better to fall
back upon, seemed the very perfection of order,
variety, and suitability — so much so, indeed, that they
were highly amused to hear that we preferred the
monotony of our own regularly graduated day and
night. The bathing-place of the district we resided
in was not far from our lodging, and I used to stroll
down of a morning to watch the neat slim young
figures, as they skipped freely about in the clear
water. If they were not exactly what we should call
344 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
handsome, the figure being, to our idea, rather slight
for size of head, and the mouth and nostrils rather
wide, yet there was withal a real attraction in their
simple and pleasing looks and ways. The elderly
Jovians, also, turn out to enjoy this daily sight ; and
in order the better to do so, there is a commodious
public pathway, running between the separate bathing-
places of the two sexes, where all these seniors, and
any others so inclined, may refresh their eyes with
the pleasant and lively spectacle. As I gazed down
upon it all, I wondered at times what my good wife
would have said to such on-goings, and, still more,
to her better half quietly enjoying them. But " Do
as they do at Eome " is the rule here; and in this
field of innocence, let me add, " Evil be to him who
evil thinks." Still, I did rather hint to young Brown
that it might probably be almost better, if perhaps we
could possibly avoid alluding at all to the subject to
the old lady, on our return home.
I might translate the name of this attractive public
resort as the Esthetic Walk, only that our term is,
perhaps, a trifle too transcendental and abstract for
the practical Jovians of lo. Much of a practical and
business consideration is connected with all this
bathing institution. The Jovians attach very great
importance, alike to perfect health and perfect form,
because, as they justly say, much expense is saved by
the former, and much more work done, and business
profit made, by the latter. Such forms, therefore,
are held in great distinction, and the Jovians • have
quite a way of their own of distinguishing them. Thus
there is, in every district, the common public bath, to
which any one may go ; but there is, distinctively,
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 345
also the Esthetic Bath, reserved for those only of
approved health and perfection of form. If any one
else wishes to enter this particular bath, he or she
must don for the time a slight dress, so that the on-
looking public, expecting only the perfection attribut-
able to the place, may not be presented with forms
which, as more or less defective, have failed to pass
the ordeal. This dress has acquired, amongst the
younger maiden as^Dirants particularly, the name of
" the night-gown," to signify its blighting effects to
the hopes and ambitions of those who are forced to
wear it.
Many a fair young maiden, in the happy days of
her courtship, will regularly sport about in the Esthe-
tic Bath, defying the night-gown, and giving the loved
one, in the adjacent bath, every opportunity he could
wish to satisfy himself as to the perfection of his
future wife. The baths are separated only by the
slightest of open gratings. Modesty does not admit of
speaking to one another, as there might be contact by
the breath. Indeed, the highest courtesy, as well as the
best manners, is to appear not to be looking directly at
your object, however absorbing. Prudent old parents
are less pretentious in that fashionable high delicacy ;
and when an engagement seems likely to take place,
the parents on both sides, not altogether trusting
the discernment of the parties themselves, through
the usual mists of love's spectacles, may be seen
repeatedly upon the Esthetic Walk, accompanied by
the family doctor, and contriving a much more direct
inspection.
The guardians of the Esthetic Bath have at times no
small trouble with the Jovian fair sex, in their efforts
346 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
to preserve, in full integrity, the bath principle ; and
more especially as to that critical period when even
the very handsomest of their day must, at last, by
the natural attacks of time, be either shrouded in the
blighting and abhorred gown, or, as the sad alternative,
be entirely expelled from the esthetic scene. Many a
fair dame, who differs entirely from her judges on the
point in question, and resents what she regards as
their erroneous or premature decision, takes alike her
consolation and her revenge, by strutting about
publicly and gownless, everywhere else, in order to
show her own confidence, at least, in her still remain-
ing charms and graces. Our landlady happened to
be one of those prematurely blighted ones ; and even
now, after a further good dozen of years, she courage-
ously persists in her daily challenge parade. She
will occasionally pose before young Brown and me, of
a morning in the garden, and without a particle of
clothing, that we can detect, except her spectacles.
When the odd novelty of the thing had worn off, we
would both, on such affecting and trying occasions,
bolt off like a shot to the preferable Esthetic Walk.
Keturn Home via Vesta and some other Planetoids.
White has established here a line of small packets,
which ply from the First Jovian to the three other
moons outside, but only towards the times when they
are respectively in near ''opposition," at which times,
of course, their distance is much diminished. It is
only in this energy-economizing way, and with an
occasional excursion, for wondering loan sightseers,
in the direction of Jupiter, that the line can be made
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 347
to pay. There is no help in passenger traffic, for
instance, from even the Second Jovian. Indeed, the
flint-chipping savages there are rather an obstacle ;
and more especially in the colder latitudes of that
moon they are at times truculent and dangerous to such
a degree as the plodding First Jovians have no fancy
to encounter, in their purely business expeditions.
We ourselves, also, were in something of the same
mind just at this particular time, so that we did not
visit any of these outliers, having other and better
game in view. Still less had we an idea of pushing on
as far as Saturn, even had he lain nearer to us then
in his orbit. The range of profitable trading narrows
much with this costly distance, while the intense
cold involves additional expense ; and withal only the
first Saturnian moon has reached a human popula-
tion, and that as yet hardly out of the paleolithics in
flints and other barbarism. The grand spectacle of
the Saturnian Eings, and all that sort of thing,
although well enough for poetry, does not now enter
into business purview. We therefore turned our steps
homewards, taking, however, the packet to Vesta,
with intention to call, besides, at one or two other
and lesser planetoids which might happen at the time
to lie most conveniently in our way.
This great celestial archipelago, of almost countless
worlds, from a few hundred miles' diameter, to a few
inches or even still less, used to present a very
dangerous navigation for some years at first. Several
of the earlier expeditions into it were never more heard
of. One in particular was actually seen, from our
observatory in Ceres, to be dashed into by a passing
world, no bigger than a haystack of our old times, and
348 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
thus itself banged into an irregular and extremely ellip-
tical orbit round the sun, which the dead and smashed-
up components are supposed to be maintaining ever
since. But now, by precautionarily keeping a certain
speed, in a certain slanting direction, on entering the
thick of the archipelago, these many bodies or little
worlds all running, of course, in one and the same
direction, the old dangers are minimized almost to
nothing.
Vestian People and Business.
Vesta and others of the planetoids possess good
phosphate diggings ; and as the former has, in
common with several others of the larger worlds of
this curious system, a human population readily
utilizable for business purposes, there are fair oppor-
tunities for a stroke of profit in this direction. These
Vestians have, to our fancy, an odd appearance, with
their very slight, top-heavy looking figures, in accord-
ance with the small gravity of their planet, and with,
besides, their wide mouths and noses, to enable them
to imbibe a sufficiency of their very thin air. With
mouths of their own in much the style of the extreme
caricaturing of our old past negro race, these Vestians
laugh outright at the bare idea of our little poke-hole
of a mouth being regarded as beauty.
My young friend Brown seemed fortunate in the
agent he secured here, a decent-looking young Vestian,
who, after engagement, accompanied us on a visit to
two other little worlds, coursing along near to each
other, and both, in fact, within easy telescopic sight
of Vesta. As all these worlds, the smaller as well as
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 349
the greater, turn respectively upon their axis, and
usually in periods of twenty to twenty-four hours, we
were interested in noticing this fact, especially in
standing upon one of the smaller orbs. On the way
back to Vesta we descried and gave chase to one very
little fellow, of not more than a foot through, and
having caught him and transferred him to our decks,
we found him to be a light vesicular-looking stuff,
chiefly composed of certain sulphates and phosphates,
and not altogether unworthy the cost and trouble of
capture and freight.
And so, having completed all our business here, we
started again straight for home ; and after threading
the planetoid archipelago with the usual precautions
and success, we were able to make a direct and rapid
course to earth, which we safely reached, after an
absence, in all, of rather less than five weeks.
350 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
CHAPTEK XIX.
OUR FOREIGN TOUR — THE INNER CIRCUIT.
Man ; his physical components everywhere diversified, his
mental everywhere alike. — Author, passim.
Preparations.
The very first news that greeted our landing was of
the fall of Bullings. Poor Bullings ! The merciless
Bears had tripped him up at last. He fell, and great
indeed, for the passing moment, was the fall. But as
usual, no doubt, as I reflected to myself, small now is
the man, if not indeed entirely forgotten, since he
has fallen. And with this moralizing, Bullings had
soon well-nigh entirely slipped out of my own mind
and memory also, seeing that, fortunately, as com-
pared with many others, I had at the time no account,
speculative or otherwise, outstanding with him.
For some little time I was now up to the eyes with
work, bringing up arrears, and getting ready for an
inner voyage, along with my promised companion, old
Brown. I had to keep the latter well up to the
scratch, as I half suspected him of regretting his
promise, and of thinking that there might be more
A THOUSAND YEABS HENCE. 351
cry than wool in this rather adventurous solar voyage.
By way of reassuring him, however, I mentioned my
solid expectations of profit from the work I had just
been engaged with ; and how much more, then, from
that of a trip to the sun !
An Old Friend turns up once more.
I was tramp-tramping, along with the passing
crowd one day, in deep musings over business things
in general, and my own immediate profits and pros-
pects in particular, when a voice fell of a sudden
upon my ears, whose remembered notes, arousing a
kind of instinctive awe, caused me in a moment to
pull up, and to find that I had slid out of the march-
ing rank. I was in a small business recess, and
confronting me was no other than the lately redoubt-
able Bullings. My annoyance with my stupid self
was excessive, and was anything but dissipated when
the old fellow rushed upon me, with a warm hand-
shaking, to acknowledge, as he vexatiously put it, my
most kindly and considerate feeling, in thus, at his
salute, purposely stopping to see him. He had been
in the very act of drawing up some hams from their
laboratorial cellarage, and he now pointed to these
with a knowing wink, as though to say that we were
brothers in trade now. But I fear I made no genial
response, as I glanced at the raw new sawdusty-look-
ing cheap ham rubbish lying before me. But he
seemed in no mood to be discouraged, and, with the
very best of spirits, entered warmly into all his new
plans and prospects. He had already, as he told me,
launched a grand restaurant system, for the supply of
352 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
business luncheons over the world — the prompt, the
ready, the ubiquitous, for business needs. He had
called the concern ''The Great Consolidated Eestau-
rant ; " and it was to disperse or swallow up all other
and rival concerns of the same kind, and eventually
girdle the earth with countless and continuous lines of
luncheon bars, accessibly at hand to even the most
hurried business man, he himself, as general manager,
being seated in the central pivot, with cross-electrical
connection, to supply and control instantaneously
every individual bar and station. I was just in time,
he added, with friendly eagerness, to secure a large
share allotment, which a cash-down payment on
my part would make free to me of the immediately
expected high premium.
I turned impatiently away from the incurable
old schemer, and, bidding him a rather curt adieu,
had, in the next second, regained a place in the
passing rank, and had soon tramped myself safe
beyond sight and hearing of my enemy. But my last
glance at poor Bullings' crestfallen and woebegone
face, as I turned upon him thus, clung to my memory
and conscience. Poor old fellow ! Thrown off, per-
haps, by every one else, I might have seemed to him,
for just the fleeting moment, the one sole remaining
friend to help him up again from the very dust. And
after all, thought I, the too forgetful world owes some-
thing to Bullings, whose great schemes still stand and
flourish, although he himself has tumbled down. I
will confess it, that, on reaching my house, my very
first act was to write out a cheque for Bullings, for
the deposit upon the proposed allotment of shares.
The cheque too might prove the more gratifying to
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 353
him, as being drawn upon liis own creation, " The
Whole Compass Finance," a fairly prosperous con-
cern, in which I had opened an account. So you see,
good reader, that the family motto of " Business first "
has, for once at any rate, been transgressed.
Our Further Programme of Travel.
This particular inner circuit trip was to be a great
and special occasion. White himself, in view of the
still reputedly dangerous solar navigation, having
consented to take the helm. How far my own per-
sonal influence on the occasion secured this important
result, I wdll not, in all modesty, decide. Anyway,
it secured us an unusually large company, while also
greatly reducing the force of old Brown's objections,
although he still emitted a growl over the sacrifice of
business time, and the possibly inadequate results in
publication profits or any other proceeds. By our
present programme, we first touched at Venus, pass-
ing thence direct to Vulcan, as Mercury's position
would be more in line about the time of our return.
From Vulcan, Brown senior and I were to go on to
the sun. Young Brown, having business with only
the three planets, would, by arrangement, take a
loop-line packet homewards from Vulcan to Mercury,
where he was to await our return from our solar trip,
and from whence the reunited party would make a
straight course for the earth.
Arrival at Venus.
Venus, worthy of her name, is a beautiful planet,
and already a favourite resort of our Eartheans. As
2 A
354 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
we approached the bright cloud-encompassed orb, we
lovingly watched her for a few seconds, as she came
towards us, trudging along in her orbit. Up at last
she duly rolls, and we easily effect our landing at one
of the high latitude stations, where the climate is
found so suitable to us. We always jump ashore
upon Venus with the easy and confident familiarity
of feehng entirely at home. This is especially the
case amongst these arctic latitudes ; for the chief
feature of difference in the two planets, namely, the
comparatively huge sun in the Venus sky, is appre-
ciably toned down, alike in heat and light, by the
cloud and cold, and the lofty mountain heights of
those localities. The fair planet, with her dense
cloud system, has, in fact, a remarkably equable
climate, night and day temperatures differing much
less than ours. Indeed, our earth seemed to the
Venusians so extremely different, in those and other
respects, from their own, that before their science
had detected unmistakable signs of population, their
conclusions had been all on the negative side, and
consequently there were many pulpit and other
homilies about great, but lifeless, worlds around
them.
The inconvenience of the partially different atmo-
spheric composition in Venus is being gradually
rectified by successive contrivances, one of the latest
of which, a most simple arrangement, I had now
brought with me, and found to answer its purpose
admirably. A small chlorine generator is fixed under
the mouth, in connection with the respiratory move-
ments, and, at every breathing inhalation, emits a
tiny stream of the chlorine gas, which catches up the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 355
noxious metallic gas, Venerium, out of the Venus
atmosphere, ere it enters our lungs. A small ad-
mixture of this, to us, new gaseous metal, which
Venus has added to our chemistry, is the chief cause
of the disagreement of Venus's atmosphere with our
Earthean constitution.
The large business that goes on daily with Venus
is now terribly cut up with competition. Still, with
the large scale of modern operation, and the prompt
and cheap deliveries through the salutary opposition
of the fast expresses, the thing can be made to pay.
Brown and I, ever on the alert for a business turn,
strolled through the Venus markets, picking up some
promising wares ; for, in view of any such chances,
we had both provided ourselves with adequate energy-
credits. Brown junior, too, reported to us very satis-
factory arrangements in his hardware and energy
trade. But, not to waste more time over this now so
familiar scene, let us pass to what will afford us much
greater diversity of feature and incident, namely, our —
Arrival at Vulcan.
I may here mention, as good illustration of inter-
planetary travel, that all of our large and varied
company, excepting perhaps a few young children,
had previously travelled as far as Venus — many
indeed had been there many times over. A large
proportion had been also as far as Mercury. A good
naany had been still further on to Vulcan. But few
indeed, excepting old White himself and his select
crew, had been to the Sun. Indeed the risks of this
voyage, to say nothing of the awful physical aspects
356 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
of the near approach, made it still a novelty to
the great mass of even oiu' more cmious sightseers.
None of us three had been there, although both old
Brown and myself had been previously as far as
Vulcan on business, and our junior as far as Mercury.
The natural consequence of such comparative few
making the sun passage was a very high passage-
money ; and just here we had old Brown's most
formidable objection, seeing that, from Vulcan to the
sun, the comparatively few millions of miles cost
quite the double of the far greater distance from
Earth to Vulcan. One must not, however, forget the
enormous expenditure required in cross-electric pro-
tective energy for this shorter voyage ; for White, who
had so often successfully made it, had guaranteed the
most assuring arrangements in that way.
We bade cordial adieus to the bright and intelligent
Venusians. Our hand-shaking has come quite into
vogue with them, although they still laugh at the
odd-looking custom all the same as at first. Passing
Mercury's orbit, we descried the little planet in the
near offing, toiling along in our direction. And now,
as we approach little Vulcan, the dimensions and
fierce power of the sun are something to notice, and
to afford us some warning of what a still nearer
approach, even beyond Vulcan himself, may look and
feel like. With every million or two of miles' approach,
the careful old White added a charge extra to our
anti-light and anti-heat cross-electric protector sur-
roundings, thus keeping us always in safety and
comfort.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 357
VuLCANiAN Features and Peculiarities.
The usual custom is to land on Vulcan by night.
Loss of business time is an objection to this practice,
but the greatly reduced night temperature is a
material saving of money or energy on the other
side. The comparative cold, especially close on to
sunrise, is so great, that we Eartheans could almost
stand the night climate here unprotected; while a
thousand feet aloft, in the thin Vulcanian atmosphere,
we feel at night, so far as temperature is concerned,
almost quite comfortable. Thus any shipping from the
earth or other outside planet, laid up for any short
season in Vulcan, find it most convenient, and much
the most saving, to get into counter-axial motion,
and so remain continuously within the protecting
shade of Vulcanian night.
"VVe calculated to arrive at our Vulcan station just
one hour before daybreak, so as to give us time to
mount our complete protective panoplies, get our
breakfast, and be ready for business. Some of our
company were out betimes to see the grand sunrise.
The slight forewarning dawn which the thin air
affords, hardly at all heralds the sudden flash of
the grand solar limb that rises upon the horizon.
Almost in one instant we were immersed in a blaze
of light and heat. The Vulcanians all around
amused us just then by rubbing their hands to take
off the chill of the morning, and welcome the coming
heat of day. We, on our part, in order to secure
•coolness, stood well within our strongly fortified
^ross-electro protectors.
How completely different everything is and looks
358 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
here as compared to our earth, or rather as compared
with the earth, Venus, Mars, and various smaller
worlds, whose climatic circumstances permit of the
presence and important functions of water ! Mercury,,
indeed, supi^lies a step of decided departm'e towards
Vulcan; but having this time given Mercury the
slip, we plunged at once into Vulcanian peculiarities »
The whole of the little planet looks like a lump of
metal, and the leaden hue throughout has at first
a non-natural and depressing effect. But this soon
wears off as we get accustomed to the people, their
gentle and pleasant ways, and their remarkably
intelligent faces, in spite of their somewhat planetoid
contour of figure. Certain metals enter largely into
the organic physique, and give a curious aspect alike
to animal and plant substance. The atmosphere
is partly composed of metallic vapours, and there
are small lakes or seas which supply those vapours,
especially during the heat of the day, and between
which and the atmosphere there is constant inter-
change.
The Vulcanian People.
Nothing is more amusing to us, or indeed more
utterly astonishing, than to see the Vulcanians
washing and bathing in these very odd " waters."
They cannot do this until the day is well on, for
all their seas are regularly frozen every night, the
ice, as we might call it, beginning on the sm-face
even ere the scorching mighty sun has quite touched
the horizon, and not bemg completely thawed until
a good hoiu' or two of morning. Hence the dangers
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 359
which attend incautious bathing. Eepeatedly young
children, taking, perhajDS, a refreshing dip towards
the evening of a hot day, have been caught by the
ice, and been got out with difficulty. In one case
lately, in some shallow water, a boy was so caught
by the feet, and both limbs considerably injured, as
well as frostbitten, ere he could be released.
The Vulcanians are not much given to business.
There are no speculations and crises here. The
i^eople are much attached to all scientific pursuits,
but withal there is not much reasoning power in
their heads. They are remarkably harmless, and
one can't help liking them. Of course you and they
can't come into contact, friendly or otherwise — no
handshaking here. While their temperature would
roast us, contact with us is not less terrible to them ;
for a finger, thrust through om- panoply, and touching
even our dress, would be skinned by the excessive
cold, much as our own tongues would be served in
touching bodies in extreme cold at our own poles.
We and the Vulcanians stand therefore in great
mutual awe and respect. We had a hearty joke
with young Brown about a pleasant young daughter
of the agent he had come to terms with here. What
a warm embrace might be in prospect in certain
contingencies ! and how such a fair partner might
stir up the fire of love in more than one sense of the
words !
Arrival at the Sun : Dangers of the Voyage.
With a considerably reduced company, we now
resumed our voyage to the sun; and now every
360 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
one was on the alert for the grand and the terrible,
and all the novelties in store for us. I marked White's
coolness. He put us up to speed almost at once,
pulling the second and third electrics consecutively,
ere we were a good fifty and a hundred thousand
miles, respectively, outside of Vulcan. So on we
flew, expecting to enter the coronal outskirts within
five hours. And so we did. Of course our shades
were all up, and we could thus gaze harmlessly upon
the growing magnificence of the sun's contour, until
at length its vast expanse was too great for grasp
of eye. Just then a peculiar agitation around us,
and a sHghtly pinkish hue in our rear, told that
we had already passed the coronal outskirts, and
entered within the hydrogen flames of the solar
atmosphere.
There is no difficulty, and no danger whatever,
nowadays, in steering through these flames, terrible
as they look at a distance, seeing they are perfectly
amenable to the powers of our cross-electro pro-
tectors. The chief danger to us, in the solar
approaches, arises from, on the one hand, the frequent
ejection of hot solid or liquid materials, and, on
the other, the circulating meteoric bodies, which
are ever falling into the sun's photosphere. As
regards this latter danger, we have to adopt our
accommodating slanting method of motion, as with
the many little planetoids, although with not always
the same success, seeing that these solar meteorites,
although mostly, are not always running in the same
direction. In the other case, again, the momentum
of some large masses might possibly exceed the force-
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 361
convertibility of our protectors. The chief safety
from this danger consists in our getting our vessel
into the tide of a "downrush," passing through one
of the " spot " openings, and thus being wafted,
swiftly and almost free alike of danger and of energy-
cost, into the sub-photospheric solar atmosx^here, where
every cause of alarm is at once ended.
All this was what White had admirably planned.
Presently we found ourselves sailing, rapidly but
quietly, through what, although comparatively a
small " spot," was none the less a vast expanding
gulf of some ten thousand miles across. The
*' spotty " seasons are thus the readiest for solar
ingress ; but the bold and experienced navigator can
always find and make good his entrance somewhere
over the ever-distm-bed equatorial and sub-equatorial
region, — the lesser openings, in fact, of a mile or even
less breadth, being often safer than the greater, owing
to their comparative freedom from the dreaded
dangers of the storm-raised faculse.
And now, passing through penumbral walls or
precipices, we enter within the mighty sun. As soon
as we had sunk beneath the level of the dazzling
photosphere, om' eyes could open upon the genial
scene that expanded in all its vastness before and
beneath us. The light clear hydrogen atmosphere
stretched for many thousands of miles below, resting
its lower strata upon the diversified surface of the
sun's solid body. White had to slacken speed, of
course, when he approached the corona and the
hydrogen atmosphere outside, and now, as we de-
scended, and had still more to slacken speed with the
362 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
growing atmospheric density, we had some leism'e
to survey and admire the broad and varied landscape
spread out beneath. But now, after our brief survey,
all is bustle and curiosity in another direction, as
we are rapidly approaching the solar landing-
place.
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 36B
CHAPTEE XX.
THE SUN, AND THE SOLAR POPULATIONS. A YET
*' HIGHER life" THERE.
Curiously enough^ in the nineteenth century, the sun was
deemed uninhabitable. — Author, chap, xx., etc.
Hitherto I have refrained fr'om much allusion to the
great central Tvorld into which we have now entered,
until I could offer some connected remarks in this
chapter, and just before we enter personally upon the
solar scenes. A thousand years ago it was the general
scientific view that the sun could not possess life.
Prior to that time the sun had been held by some to
be peopled, but upon purely imaginative grounds, for
the chief conditioning data were then unknown.
The standing problem of the bright photosphere had
not then been solved. The photosphere, as we now
know, is the cross-electric outward emanation from
the magneto-cross-electric current, which ever sweeps
the solar surface, keeping that surface comparatively
cool, and composing it, more or less, to dynamic
equilibrium. The solar j)hoto sphere, in short, is, as it
were, our own familiar "Aurora glory," intensified by
cross-electric action upon a gigantic scale, and over-
364 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
spreading, in the upper atmosphere, the entire solar
circumference.
All central suns, after throwing off their planetary
siUTOundings, continue long in cross-electrically dis-
turbed condition, even long after they have become so
far dynamically balanced as to develop organic life.
When all this electrical disturbance at length com-
23letely subsides, as we see in Sirius, and many other
of the like more advanced suns, the conditions are
all at the highest for human development. A long
lingering disturbance may still remain in the equa-
torial regions, even after the rest of the sun has
attained the serenity alluded to. This is the case of
our sun, in common with a good many others, and
the consequence is, that there are two distinct solar
peoples within our luminary, the one occupying a
great belt of the still more or less disturbed equatorial
centre, the other possessing the climatically serene
and perfected sections, where they form an upper
class of extremely higher human attainments, and
keep quite aloof from the lower solars, much as we
ourselves would do fi'om a herd of monkeys or other
inferior beings.
Of com'se our intercourse and trading were not
with these high and mighty folks. Nevertheless it was
one of our main objects to pay them a visit. Indeed
Brown and I reckoned that this visit would form about
the most novel and attractive chapter of our forth-
coming volume, so little are these most remarkable
people yet known to us. All our intercourse as yet
had been with the lower or equatorial solars, whom
we found a plain common-sense people, advanced on
an average to our own whereabouts, much as we
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 365
sliould have expected and calculated from their main
I)h3'Sical conditions of enormous gravity, and ver}^
considerable, but irregular and intermittently dis-
turbed sub-photospheric light and heat.
White was already quite at home with these Lower
Solars, and had many a warm welcome in their
genial expressions. His agent, whom White had
duly signalized on his approach, was waiting at
the landing, and was apparently a plain straight-
forward man of business. But what an odd figure !
And what a change, from the slender forms of Vulcan,
was the short squat mortal before us, his big broad
head upon an almost inj)erceptibly short neck, half-
buried between his shoulders, and his body as broad
as it was long. His deep sepulchral voice, as he
spoke to us — and, let me add, quite fluently in good
English, which he had mastered for our benefit, as
well as the Telegraph tongue — was yet another
striking feature of the case.
We all turned out of ship, and with much curiosity
wandered about in the solar scenes. The aspect of
the heavens above was even more striking than the
scene upon the ground below ; and we were never tired
of watching the sublime grandeur of the electric
storms, now lowering and darkening and again break-
ing up, with frequent glimpses of the reverse, or lower
surface, of the beautiful photosphere, with its com-
paratively subdued lustre, now serene, for fleeting
minutes, like an upper solar sky, and again promptly
disturbed by the varying electrical streams, and the
violent breaches of the upward and the downward
atmospheric rushes.
We had not been long ashore ere a most comic
366 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
incident occurred. A waggish youth of our company
who had joined us from the first on a business hohday,
and who had kept us all alive with his fun and frolic,
observing Brown at one of the market stalls deep into
a bargain about a lump of helium, adroitly undid
the waste tube, which was firing out the converted
sm'plus gravity, from its usual and comparatively
dignified fastening behind the neck, and brought
it down so as to emerge from beneath the old gentle-
man's coat tails, giving him all the appearance of
possessing a fiery appendage in that fundamentary
quarter. We all broke at once into a burst of laughter,
while the broad grin visible upon some solar faces
near us must, as we guessed, be accepted in the same
sense, however difiicult to be so realized. Brown was
excessively angry at first, and more than suspected
me, until we had indicated the hopeless delinquent.
But his helium bargain, which he presently concluded,
soon restored his composure.
Upper and Lower Solardom.
Our Lower Solar friends were a fairly busy and
progressive people, who occupy all that vast equatorial
region of the sun which we have of old assigned to
spot liability. It is of course hundreds of thousands
of miles in breadth, with a circumference of between
two and three millions ; and all over this vast area
was spread an almost countless multitude of busy
humanity. Brown and I secured our seats for
Borderland, as the terminal territory is called, and
which, in a straight line, was about a quarter of a
million of miles from where we had landed. By
A THOUSAND YEABS HENCE. 367
ascending high up in the thin hydrogen atmosphere,
travelling here was at much greater speed than we
were used to in our own heavier atmospheric medium.
Although we were a good twenty-four of our hours
on this voyage, we were never tired of the vast and
varied landscape beneath, and we had besides a
comfortable sleep by the way.
The grandest spectacle of all is the approach to
Upper Solardom, which was heralded to us from afar
by the gradual diminution of electrical disturbance
overhead, and the bright and steady serenity of the
remote horizon. This Borderland has, from one cause
and another, come to be thickly occupied by the
Lower Solars. One cause of attraction is the accom-
modation required for the curious who travel into
Upper Solardom; and who are apt to linger, both
going and returning, in the comparatively bright
scenes of all the circuit of this Border territory.
But as neither Upper Solars, nor their Upper
Solardom, have much attraction for the Lower — there
being, as we shall presently show, no great love lost
between them, and no great coveting on the one part
for the other's condition — the crowd and business of
Borderland was due chiefly to quite another cause.
All this Borderland, then, was a sort of sanitarium,
physical and mental, for the Lower Solars ; and
a delightful, as well as healthful, change it ever
proved. The consequence was that great numbers
had, for many generations back, made this attractive
territory their permanent home. There was a curious
consequence to those whose families had thus lived
longest on the border, and especially along its nearest
Upper Solar edges, namely that they began to
368 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
develop the characteristics of Upper Solar superiority*
So soon as these signs unquestionably appeared,
Upper Solardom was thrown open to their common
citizenship ; and it was often curious to mark the
hesitation at first of these new-fledged great ones,
at quitting the warmth of their old accustomed Lower
Solar associations, intellectually inferior as they might
be, to enter the cold, methodical, unvarying, most
ungenial, and almost austere-looking life of the
higher race. But it is now time to describe more
particularly those remarkable Upper Solars, at whose
walls, or rather at whose protective cross-electric
panoply, we have just arrived.
The Upper Solar People.
The grand distinction of the Upper Solars is the
additional sense given to the mind, in its communica-
tion with the outside world. This is the causation or
reasoning sense, and it is indicated by a special set
of nerves proceeding direct outwards from the middle
of the frontal brain — the skull in that part having two
small openings, by way of intellectual eyes, situated
an inch or two above the ordinary eyes, and through
which the said nerves pass, terminating in a peculiar
outer ganglion, serving to meet, directly, external im-
pressions. One feels quite lost in arguing upon this
additional human quality or power ; for prior to our
knowledge of Upper Solar fact, we should have
regarded such power as altogether superhuman and
restricted to Deity. But there could be no doubt that
it was a human acquirement, the result of long
residence under the highest physical auspices — no
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 369
doubt, I repeat, for we see daily in Borderland the
proof in many thousands who are simultaneously
graduating before our eyes into that higher power
and higher life. In these cases the well-known red
marks first come out upon the forehead. From that
first stage it is only a question of time in successive
generations. That time, science, and medicine can
more or less expedite or protract ; and sometimes it
is the fancy to do the last rather than the first, for,
as I have said, Upper Solar life is no attractive
spectacle to the Lower Solar minds. Of course, once
lifted clean out of the lower into that higher realm
of thought, the attractions of the latter will be duly
realized.
This additional sense gives the faculty of knowing
either ourselves or each other so completely, that, if
all affecting circumstances can be known or given or
calculated, our conduct — that is to say, all our
thought and action — could be predicted under any or
all of those circumstances for all time coming. The
upper life cases are in this respect much simpler and
easier dealt with than ours of the lower life, as we
are ever apt to be irregular and " tricky," and to
conceal or confuse thought and intention by non-
conformable outward expression. There is no double
dealing of this kind in the grave straightforward
Upper Solar life. But our complex case is not
beyond the range of the sixth sense ; it requires only
an additional calculus line. An Upper Solar can
usually be resolved upon one line, as both himself
and his physical surroundings are so regular and so
ascertainable. But the Lower Solars, and ordinary
humanity in general, require two and often the es-
2 B
370 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
tremely intricate problem of three separate calculus
lines.
Upper is separated from Lower Solardom by a
lofty wall, or cross-electric panoply, ascending
perpendicularly right up to the reversal of the
photosphere. This thin diaphanous aurora-looking
process hardly prevents our view more than would
the clearest glass, but it is an impenetrable barrier
to the Lower Solars, almost as much as the solar
photosphere itself. Consequently we visitors have
to pass through one of the appointed gates, where
an Upper Solar guard receives the intending traveller
and subjects him to the calculus. This is usually
a brief process, and completed in the unaided
mind of the guardian ; although, at times, he will not
be so easily satisfied, and will take to his pencil,
especially if he detects the necessity for more than
one or two calculus lines. This happened just the
day before our visit, with an Unmitigated Calvinist
Missionary, who had come to make conversions, and
who had at first aroused disturbing suspicions. But
when it was found, by means of a carefully traced
third calculus line, that a terrible category of ideas,
lying behind the missionary's apparently placid outer
expression, referred solely to the next life, the man
himself being a i)lain well-meaning common-sense
mortal as ever stepped, he was at once passed through.
The sole object of the guardianship is to make sure
that visitors have no mischievous or other bad or
trouble-giving intentions. That being ascertained,
they are perfectly free to go in and out at pleasm-e.
The grand dividing wall we were now approaching
has a gradual self-adjusting forward movement,
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 371
towards the solar equator, ever enclosing additional
territory, where electrical disturbance above has
sufficiently ceased for that purpose. This is a slow
but a steady process. The steps are hardly appreciable
under intervals of ten thousand solar-axial revolutions
of twenty-five of our days each. Eventually the two
great walls, approaching respectively from north and
south, will meet at the solar equator, thus con-
stituting the whole solar surface into Upper Solar
territory, and making of our sun a world of entirely
Upper Solar life.
The Upper Solars, it is inferred by us lower
mortals, are able to calculate, quite accurately, alike
the beginning and the duration of this result. Then
comes a long reign of Upper Solar life, and an
advance into knowledge far beyond ordinary human
attainment. But the end comes at last in this as
in all else. Indeed it has been foreseen from the
beginning. The fires of all solar energy must at
length burn out. There have been many instances in
the past, and there will be many more in the future.
But all this complex question of science, including
that other of the contingency of the re-entrance of
those burnt-out systems into light and heat, and a
fresh career of life, by the collisions and other
fortunes incidental to constant locomotion and gravity
action — a problem in whose solution, by the way, we
have of late made much progress — all this, I say,
however interesting, must not further distract us at
present. Suffice it to add, that the prospect, whether
from afar, or as being close at hand, is always viewed
alike philosophically by the Upper Solar minds.
Their advanced science might long protract, by
372 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
artificial conditions, the Upper Solar existence in any
threatened case. But, as they calmly argue, why
enter upon any such forced and inferior conditions !
There is ever, accordingly, perfect resignation to the
final extinction of the race in each successive case.
And again, it would be within the power of their
science to effect a timely escape to other suns, more
or less perfectly suited to them, and having yet
millions of generations of life before them, which are
in full communion with them, and where they would
be loyally welcomed. But each solar world accepts
its own destiny and fate, and this escape-resource
has never been adopted. They reflect that the com-
parative handful of their particular section of the
race will not be missed in the many millions of the
peopled suns of Upper Solar life attainment ; and
that there is a still more satisfying eternity for all of
them in that spiritual life of the future, which is the
common heritage of man.
Our Personal Experience of Them.
And now it was for Brown and me to wonder how
we, the Peri of a lower world, were to be dealt with
at the gate of this paradise, to which we were ap-
proaching. I must say that, even in spite of sundry
comic sensations, I felt penetrated by a profound
respect and awe, as the bright, keen, all-speaking
pair of eyes concentrated upon me, the short squat
figure having first raised itself to my level by
mounting a chair. There was further a mysterious
uncomfortable glitter about those small upper eyes
in the forehead, whose jet-black extremities were
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 373
evidently in co-action and co-agitation with the lower.
To my agreeable surprise, however, I was passed
through almost at once. But turning back to Brown,
and seeing some little haggling going on, and old B.
for once, as I thought, a trifle uncomfortable, I could
not resist calling out that that sad Calvinism of his
was at the bottom of it all.
The next moment, however, the old fellow tripped
up to my side, quite proud of his comparative con-
sequence. " Well, Green," he said emphatically, " I
never ! They do say, hereabout, that the empty heads
get easiest through. Who would have thought that
as between you and me ! You must have so crammed
my head all these years, that at last it is fuller than
your own." I was rather put out by this unseason-
able, or at least unexpected sally of old Brown's.
But then who could think, just at that exciting
moment, of anything else than Upper Solardom?
What struck us most, when at last really inside,
was the uniformity of everything around. There
seemed a great throng of people and a multitude of
dwellings, although nowhere such as to cause any
inconvenience. But the houses were all alike, and
the people all seemed to have the same exj)ression,
and to be doing the same things — in short to live,
move, and think in the same way. It seemed as
though, having ascertained the best plan of a dwelling,
for instance, they all took exactly to that pattern,
and that, having determined the best rule as to
habits of life and thought, they all followed that rule.
There is one curious physical difference between them
and us, in the absence of a stomach and bowel system
like ours. As they imbibe, in their advanced
374 A THOUSAND TEARS HENCE.
chemical ways, only the exact kind and quantity of
the nutriment needed for the system, there is neither
excrement nor excrementary passage ; and of course
there is never either the worry or the savour of a
sewage question in Upper Solardom.
These Upper Solars are supposed to have complete
knowledge of all physical science, but, on principle,
to withhold such advanced knowledge from the
Lower Solars, in order that, by gradual self-progress,
the social and moral advance may accompany the
scientific. With their advanced science, they might
travel from system to system as easity and quickly,
perhaps, as we now master mere interplanetary
distances ; but, as matter of fact, they never do
so, simply because there seems to them no need
for such time and labour-wasting effort, seeing their
communications by mind are already perfect and
constant with all Upper Solar life throughout the
universe, or, more strictly, throughout that section
of it in which they live. Having attained to all
physical science, their chief study is the science of
mind ; and the chief occupation there is the sublime
study of Deity, in its relation to eternity j)ast and
future, to infinity, and to the visible universe. In this
high question our own more limited capacity can but
catch up one or other of the outside extremities of the
true idea — namely, on the one hand, a j)ersonal God,
necessarily local and limited ; and, on the other, a
pantheistic expanse, as necessarily nothing at all.
In endeavouring, with their higher capacity, to grasp
the true mean of the Divine relationship, these
Upper Solars have before them a grand question, in
which the race is ever making a satisfying because
A THOUSAND YEABS HENCE. 375
an appreciable progress, but with this result, at once
inspiring and despairing, that every step of ascent
opens to view a still larger field of what remains
unknown.
After strolling about for a while, no one around
us taking any notice, any more than if we were a
couple of harmless stray sheep, we resolved to accost
one of these self-absorbed beings, in order to pump
some information out of him. We relied on the
probability of his being master of the universal
telegraph language of our own, so-called "Higher
Life." " Yes, you do it. Green," interposed Brown
eagerly ; and I doubt not he was at the moment
thinking of the promising variety of material thus
in store for our forthcoming volume. I doubt not,
also, that I could, just then, have signally reversed,
upon his own pate, that late allocution of his about
other people's empty heads, had I chosen to go back
upon it. But with all our present high surroundings
I rose above that small sort of thing.
Watching our opportunity, we planted ourselves
right in front of one advancing form, for there seemed
no other way of distracting the attention of these
people, in their devoted self-abstraction. This was
an elderly man, with the grave but not unpleasant
expression that appeared to belong to the whole race.
He glanced up at us for a moment, and, with perfectly
unchanged expression, was about to make a slight
detour, so as to pass round us. But we were not
to be done in that way, and so we promptly check-
mated him.
376 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
Their Grand Science Attainments.
Brown stood awe-struck, while I gathered myself
up for the encounter. With a feeling of profound
.respect, which could hardly fail to appear in my
looks, I asked our new friend if he would afford to
us, ignorant strangers as we were, some information
upon all that was around us. With a sign of assent,
he answered at once, and in our telegraph language,
that he would give us a few minutes. Then turning
round, and pointing to what seemed to us a sort of
telegraph apparatus, from which he had himself just
come, and where there were still a great many
looking on and apparently reading, he told us that
communications were there being received from a
number of systems, far and near, throughout the
universe. The information appeared to us to be
conveyed by a rapid succession of spectrum colours
and their colour sounds, all of which' rumbled in
our crude ears like the mere indiscriminate hum
of an Eolian harp, but which seemed to convey,
with extraordinary rapidity, the most precise know-
ledge to the absorbed listeners before us. We were
already aware, indeed, that these Upper Solars inter-
communicated ideas with a rapidity almost infinitely
beyond mere speech making ; and that they classed
us mere speechmakers as an inferior race, and more
allied to anthropoids than to themselves. Although
there was not a great difference in physical form
between them and the Lower Solars, these Uppers,
with their additional sense, and other superiorities,
made out, at least, a very wide difference in mind.
Our guide next took us, after a short walk, into
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 377
one of a line or street of houses, presumably his own
residence. These houses are very small slight struc-
tures, and, in passing through this one, we noticed
what must have been a bed, but which to us looked
more like an electric battery. We had already, indeed,
heard something of the sleeping arrangements in
Upper Solardom, the plan being to lie down in a
head-to-foot magnetic current, which composes at
once to sleep, while a clock regulation, by arrest and
reversal of the composing current, after so many
hours, causes immediate awakening.
We now passed through, into a somewhat large
and open space behind, where we noticed what
seemed like a slightly hollowed out amphitheatre.
This was nearly filled by the irregular outline of
what looked like a transparent mist or light auroral
cloud. Our guide, in pointing to this remarkable
object, seemed, by his face, to ask us if we could
divine its meaning. We approached nearer, and
gazed intently for some seconds. Suddenly I recog-
nized the peculiarity of the outline, and a sense of
sublime awe and even terror came over me, for was
it not a micromized reflection of the vast outside
universe ! It was indeed no other. Our own science,
although far less advanced, had long since laid down
the general form of our universe, embodied mainly,
as it was, in the so-called Milky Way; and here it
all was, bodily reflected before our eyes. When I
had whispered the solution to Brown, he was even
more awed and affected than myself.
Our guide first explained that this reflection was
secured for their use from the point of view of the
furthest outlying star-cluster, and conveyed to them,
378 A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE.
as to many others, by lines which, with ter-cross
strength, passed unscathed through their own and
any other solar photospheres ; while our own poorer
lines, merely cross-electric, whether duplicated, or
even reduplicated, were, alas ! at once destroyed by
contact with those glowing cross-electric furnaces.
Then taking a rod in his hand, our instructor next
directed our attention to one particular spot, con-
siderably inside, towards the centre of the mist.
This, as I correctly surmised, was the location of
our own system ; but nothing in particular could
be distinguished, beyond the general outline of a
comparatively very small section of the misty total,
representing the particular sub-universe of which our
solar system was a minute part.
We were next directed to look through what
appeared a telescopic apparatus ; and there truly
I saw what had been the little fragment of mist
now resolved into almost countless stars or suns,
but yet on so small a scale, that any of their respec-
tive revolving planets were totally invisible. A spring
was next touched, and now this first magnifying
was itself remagnified. But the magnified field was
this time restricted to only one sun, whose principal
planets just emerged into distinct sight. This was
our own luminary, and around it we made out
clearly great Jupiter and diversified Saturn, with
Uranus and Neptune feebly visible, while the earth
and Venus were but small discless points of light.
Another magnifying brought only the earth and the
moon into the field ; and, in yet one more, it was
the earth alone, looming out grandly in all her
solitude. Ceaselessly turning on her axis, and
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 379
moving along in her orbit, the mighty living world
lay before tis ; and even while we gazed for a few
seconds, we had to keep adjusting the apparatus,
so as to move with the restless mass, and maintain
it all in our full view. " See, Green," cried Brown,
all of a sudden, and in no small excitement, just
at this conjuncture, " the bright morning seems
just dawning over the ground of Old England ; and
as the next magnifying is to bring to us the life
size, who knows what delicate scenes and questionable
sights may open uj)on us — Mrs. G. herself, perhaps,
at her favourite eastern-outlook bedroom window, and
just out of bed, in her night-dress, to sniff the fresh
morning air." "Bless my heart and soul," said I
to myself, as something approaching to a momentary
tremor ran through me, ''I had not thought about
all this ! " My fingers instinctively dropped from the
regulating knob, and the final trigger remained
unsprung.
We now turned back with our friend towards his
house, and as he discoursed to us, I nudged Brown,
in order to whisper in his ear that we were being
treated to no less than actual Ter-Cross science.
Poor Brow^n was sorely awe-struck, and seemed to
look in wonder at something of a jaunty aspect I
put on. For my part, suspecting, as we re-entered
the house, that our opportunities were drawing to
a close, and eager to make the most of what were
left, I plumped to our instructor a plain question.
It was unmistakably evident, I said to him, that
his race had attained to Ter-Cross science, an attain-
ment that might be yet very far from our own less
advanced position; but what of the Quarto-Cross?
380 A THOUSAND YEABS HENCE.
"The Quarto Cross," he echoed, and at the same
time reverently upraising his eyes — " The Quarto-
Cross is beyond us — unattainable discovery ! Divine
Power ! " So saying, and giving us a slight salute,
he disappeared behind his door, and we were left
on the steps lamenting.
A THOUSAND YEABS HENCE. 381
CHAPTER XXL
BELATES CHIEFLY TO A VERY CURIOUS DREAM OF MINE.
Brown's remarkable dream. — Author, chap. i.
" Old Shaver," said I to myself, as Brown and I
descended his door-steps, " you are wrong there at
any rate — decidedly wrong, even with all your high
ter-cross attainments. We inferior mortals of earth
long regarded the ter-cross as exclusively Divine Power;
and now that this power has been humanly reached
by you Upper Solars, it is the quarto-cross that has
become Divine, and so on ! But neither the quarto
nor the quinto, no, nor yet the dekka, nor even the
cento-cross, may prove beyond human attainment.
Our duty and privilege are to keep marchiug unceas-
ingly onward, ever labouring to add to our knowledge;
even if ever to find ahead a constantly enlarging field
for our further journey."
A Cross with Brown — This Time not the
Cross-Electric.
Wholly absorbed by high thoughts of this kind, I
had gone on a considerable distance without once
thinking of Brown. But at last the regular patter of
382 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
feet broke upon my heretofore absorbed ears, and,
turning round, I saw the old fellow following, just like,
of all things, as I thought at the moment, some awed
spaniel at his master's heels. I am sorry to have to
confess to some feeling of contempt for my old friend,
just for the moment, creeping over me ; and this
again was promptly followed by a serious business
consideration, to the effect that Brown, while contri-
buting but little, possibly nothing at all, worth insert-
ing in our forthcoming work, and leaving me to
supply all the brains, was yet to appropriate the full
half of the profits. This latter consideration, in fact,
took quite a sudden hold upon me at that moment ;
and no wonder, for the prospects of our volume
were then of the most promising kind. So I re-
solved, there and then, upon a cautiously tentative
approach to the subject.
''Well, Brown," said I, with an assumed perfect
indifference, " all these wonders we have passed
through are grand padding to our volume. Profit
looms ahead if they are properly described."
" Oh, bother your profit, Green ! " said Brown
energetically, with all the disgusted air of a mind
unwillingly interrupted in other and higher thoughts.
"Hoity, toity ! " said I to myself : ''what's all up
now ! And is even old Brown amongst the prophets
— lost perhaps in that grand mist of the universe we
have just been exploring ! " I was most immensely
amused. But presently the matter took with me,
somewhat irresistibly, a business shape. " Well,
Brown," I said, " if you don't mind those despised con-
siderations, I am agreeable, by myself alone, to take
all the trouble, as well as stand solely good for all the
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 383
undoubted publication risks and costs, on condition,
of course
*' Bother the whole subject !" repeated Brown, inter-
rupting me. But, alas ! the original energy thrown
into the sentence had entirely vanished. The words
were there, but the spirit was gone. So I ported my
helm, to avoid the visible breakers, and wait and woo
some more promising opportunity.
We duly reached, on our return, the Upper Solardom
border, repassed the gateway, this time without the
slightest interference or even notice, and after a stroll
through the far more active, varied, and genial scenes
of the " Lower Life " outside, we re-embarked, to
rejoin White and his company on their return home
via Mercury. While we retraced aloft the vast solar
landscape, I was this time busy over my notes of
all that had occurred, so as to secure my description
whilst all was still fresh on the mind. I was thus
occupied till within some six hours of our destination,
when, throughly wearied out in spite of all the excite-
ment, I lay down to rest and was promptly fast asleep.
Then followed —
My Dream, and the Disappointing Awakening.
I dreamt that another thousand years had swept
over our earth, bringing us from the present a.d. 2882
to the year of grace 3882, with all its wonders of still
additional and ever-increasing population and ad-
vanced and still ever-advancing science. We had
then honeycombed our earth far towards the centre
in order to make room for the multitudes of human
beings : while outwards, again, we had occupied all
384 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
the atmosphere, and were anchored out, in large
space-colonizing detachments, even considerably be-
yond its limits. Travelling had long been driven off
into the pure surrounding ether, and there truly the
rate of speed and the roominess of space were as yet
all that could be desired.
Brown and I still took regularly our half-holiday
Saturday trip ; but it was now a considerable way,
even beyond the atmosphere, into outside space. I
comforted Brown with the calculation that even the
comparatively small space between us and Sirius
could pack within one narrow belt the whole of our
world's population, and even the additions for some
centuries more ahead into the bargain. Although
the world's population seemed then in a thorough
jam as compared with now, yet none seemed to feel
inconvenienced. No one wished to retreat to the
smaller days of the past ; but at the same time every
one wondered, just as we ourselves now do in the
twenty-ninth century, how people could possibly get
on, with our then pace of progress, after a still
further thousand years.
The great feature of the time was that we had
attained to the ter-cross. The phosphate supply
question was all past and done with, because we
could now interconvert all the varieties of material
substance, reducing them all, by command of adequate
intensity of heat, to the one simple element of matter,
and reconstituting the due proportions of chemical
diversity as required exactly for our life and food and
all other wants. The danger of the future, although
still at a reasonably safe distance, was not a scarcity
of phosphates or of any other substance in particular,
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 385
but of substance itself in general ; for what were we
to do when by the increase of human bodies all the
earth's substance had been absorbed? Were we to
prey upon the other orbs of space, and thus increase
our earth into unknown future dimensions ? Some
pretended already, even in the reality of this twenty-
ninth century, to decipher that prospect upon the
future horizon. Already, it might be said, we were,
at times and in places, hard run to maintain the
full needed supplies, the carbon and oxygen, nitrogen
and hydrogen, and the other lesser needs, being kept
unremittingly at work in their successive coursing
through our material frames. In this growing
relative scarcity, one body must perhaps imbibe
at once what another throws off. The labor atorj^
intervenes to convert exhaled poison into indis^^ensable
nutriment. The ubiquitous reign of chemistry is
already triumphant.
Eeturning to the dream, one vast field of business
seemed opening out, in providing from time to time the
extensions to our atmosphere, as required, on the one
hand, by extension of subterranean excavation, and,
on the other, by the overcrowding aerial population.
When the volume of our wants in oxygen and nitrogen
had become too great for the slow and costly process
of decomposing the earth's solid masses, we had re-
course to outside supplies, and had already made
considerable havoc of Jupiter's gaseous envelope,
where both the gases in question were to be had
unlimitedly for the taking, only that the expense of
disengaging and deporting was very considerable.
But latterly the grand source of the most suitable
and most economical supply had been the comets.
2 c
386 A THOUSAND YEAKS HENCE.
No oxygen comets had been met with, but in our
system there were not a few of the smaller of these
members of the family composed, wholly or mainly,
of nitrogen; and one of them had, not long before,
been wholly captured, and piloted, by cross-electric
conduction, safely into our earth, where it was duly
intermixed with an oxygen stream similarly and
simultaneously conducted from Jupiter. The State
authorities had made large contracts in this way,
and many contractors had made large fortunes. Both
Brown and I had contrived to secure a share.
But the progress which surpassed all else, and
which ever commanded the deepest interest of that
time, was that of outside travel, which had now passed
far beyond the puny distances of the realities of our
own time, and within our own system. My old friend
White turned up here also once more, and this time
making voyages, not merely to our next-door neigh-
bours the planets, but to the stars. The nearer
systems in fact were reached within the few days or
weeks that are now occupied in our interplanetary
travel. A very grand scheme was in contemplation,
under White's redoubtable leadership — no less than
a public excursion to the nebula in Argo, in order to
survey, from some near but sufficiently safe position,
the marvellously stupendous movements that are
of late developmg there, in the gradual process of
evolving a huge solar system. This system, in its
foreshortened position, as regarded our point of view,
had long seemed to be carrying on many incom-
prehensible antics. But, latterly, we had clearly
demonstrated the whole case; and the result was a
very general inclination to know more of the subject
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 387
by a closer view of those protracted pangs of celestial
partui-ition into which the nebulous matrix had fallen.
Those who were willing for the vast joui-ney would
bring back the description to those who were not, or
who could not afford the time or the money.
There w^as quite a mania for this trip, and con-
siderable numbers from Venus, and a sprinkling even
from Mercury and Vulcan were tempted to join.
They mostly preferred coming to us of the earth, so
as to be under old White's approved leadership.
There were still, even after this further thousand
years, as I dreamt, many Lower Solars lingering along
the Solar Equator, and not a few of these, as they
confessed, might have joined us also, but for the
inconvenience they felt, and the heavy counter-energy
cost they were continuously put to, on quitting the
accustomed enormous gravity of the sun's sm*face.
Their squat room-taking figures, too, rendered them
somewhat ungenial fellow-travellers. But again, om*
company, upon the celestial ground of destination, was
not to be limited, by any means, to om* own small
solar system ; for many systems around us were fired
by the same ambitious object, and simultaneous ex-
peditions from each system had been agreed to. We
could sufficiently trust our latest universe charts, so
as to meet one another at appointed stations in space,
and it was quite expected that spectators and their
vehicles, in form of a vast amphitheatre, would more
or less surround the agitated expanse of the nebula.
And lastly, as to the question of speed. White, with
his usual and well-practised daring, would hardly
condescend to put limits to his 230wers, short of
electric-light message speed itself. Give him the open
388 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
sea, he would always say, far clear of all intervening
island systems, and he could work uj) speed in-
definitely. He spoke of attaining a twentieth, a tenth,
nay, a fifth even, of the message speed : which was
somewhat like saying, that the speed of light itself,
186,000 miles in a second, was to be eclipsed as
much as that speed, when first made known, eclij)sed
all other speeds of our then knowledge. White
reckoned that six weeks would bestride the vast
interval in question, with further allowance for the
'' slack " at either extremity of the voyage — a rather
troublesome case it was, in dealing with our corporate
and living bodies, seeing that the said slack involved
about as much of precious time as the main voyage
itself.
White had made enormous preparations, alike for
speed and safety. The outlay upon anti-vis-inertial
energy, and anti-momentum energy, was something
fabulous; and no wonder that the passage-money
ran up even to thousands of energy per head.
Another stupendous cost was the vast panojDly of
cross-electric lines thrown out, forming, in fact,
an encompassing cylinder, ever far ahead along the
route to the nebula. Even the continuous pay-out
of this costly process for the earth's axial motion
was an appreciable addition. But in fact every
such i^recaution was taken for safety, regardless of
expense, so that the minutest meteoric body, entering
within the lines even a billion miles ahead, was almost
at once indicated at the pilotage, and by the admu-able
self-action of that advanced day avoided.
Brown and I, of course, had made up our minds
to go on this trip. Indeed, we had other and better
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 389
objects than mere curiosity, scientific or general.
We had our eye upon capturing a good slice of the
nebula itself, and were to take the necessary cross-
electric apparatus for the purpose, having already,
by anticipation, for the safety of all the travelling
world, chalked out the path of the mass, after we had
detached it and sent it speeding homewards, and having
intimated publicly the time of start and rate of travel,
according to all customary precaution. In fact, a
powerful syndicate had been formed regarding this
nebula-prizing. Brown and I were appointed the
managing agents, and om* mere joint brokerage, even
at a thirty-second, further reduced, by retm-n com-
mission, to a sixty-fourth, was not to be despised.
Well, we were both duly at White's office to secure
and pay for our passages. I saw Bro\\Ti's hand deep
into his breeches pocket for the needed energy notes,
and at the same time I marked a pang flitting over
his face at havuig to part with so much hard-earned
money. White, who stood b}^ getting impatient at
this hesitation and delay, with all the waiting crowd
of passengers behind, roared out to us to make
haste ; and thereupon, sad to say, I awoke, and all
our greatness and progress was but a dream !
390 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
CHAPTEE XXII.
home's realities at last; real, at axy rate, if
still further disappointing.
" Home, sweet home ! " — Authou, chai>. i.
Yes, it was all a dream ! And so one must descend
forthwith from grand castles in the air to the humhle
cottages of reality. I was most decidedly out of
humom-, for the time, with this sudden change from
the sublimely great, to what was, by comparison
at least, the ridiculously small; nor were things
made any better to my wounded ideal, when White
himself bobbed his rough old head between the
cm-tains of my little berth, to say that this was the
second arousing he had already given me to make
haste, there being now no time to lose in securing
a promising spot opening that presented itself for
passing outside the iDhotosphere. I rose of course,
but I was in more or less of a growling, disappointed
mood during all my morning's toilet.
But passing presently into the main cabin, inj
thoughts began at last to be agreeably diverted, for
almost the first object to greet my eyes was my
bundle of letters on the table, by mail, just in from
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 391
the Earth. It was the direct express, and brought
of course the very latest despatches. Amongst others
to myself was a letter from Bullings. It was ex-
pressed in the most grateful terms, acknowledging
that my timely remittance, together with the in-
fluential and stimulative heading of the honoured
name of Nunsowe Green to his share-list, had rein-
stated his fortunes. His grand consolidation scheme
had taken the public fancy, and already the shares
were at twenty premium. ^'Tliat price," added
Bullings, "can be had at once for yours ; but as they
must go to fifty or even a hundred immediately, it
would, of course, be madness to sell." So then this
is to be " Business first " after all, thought I, as a
warm thrill of mingled benevolence and business
consideration came over me. But forthwith I
telegraphed Bullings, with electro-light speed, even
upon the extreme expediting heat-wave, the one sole
word, '' Sell."
Next, moving outside, great was my astonishment
at the surrounding spectacle. The school-children
of the neighbourhood had all obtained a partial
holiday, alike to witness and to do honour to our
departure. The rocks and house-tops all about were
covered with the odd-looking little creatures, whose
peculiar and soft lullabies, "Ha, ha, Pa, pa," now
fell like sweet music upon my ears. I could not
help musing at the moment on the similarities of
children everywhere, for I could almost have sworn
that I heard my own young peoj)le's voices in all
this far-away solar throng.
Now at last w^e shove ofi\ White is evidently
resolute for despatch, and keeps his eagle eye forward
392 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
and aloft, fixed upon the grand *'spot" opening
which had lately yawned in a position so conveniently
direct for us. At once he springs the first electric,
and, with a rather smart shock all round, away we
speed. The arousing effects of the shock, the pleasant
excitement, the reassuring aspect of redoubtable old
White at the helm near me, and, above all, the
pleasant parental feeling that we were now homeward
bound, had at last quite dispelled my cross humour
in the tantalizing matter of the dream. Bulhngs'
welcome communication also did its part ; so that,
altogether, I found myself lapsing into a very comfort-
able complacency of spirit, as I glanced, alternately,
downwards upon the vast and diversified solar scenery
we were so rapidly leaving, and upwards at the
electrical storms and storm-clouds of the sub-photo-
sphere, which we were as rapidly approaching.
Suddenly I mark a change in White's expression,
and looking in the direction indicated by his fixed
and keen gaze, I at once apprehend the cause ;
for a bright facula is just then seen streaming out
from the edge towards the centre of the opening
in the photosphere for which we are making. It
now occurred to me to suggest to White, that,
perhaps, we had better j)ull up, or even make a
timely turn back, in face of such manifest danger.
Hardly was the thought realized, when I saw the
bold, rash man pull the second electric, and on we
dashed at the redoubled speed, while the terrible
shaking I got in consequence seemed to leave me, for
a second or two, but half alive.
But I quickly recovered myself, under the pressure
of imminent surrounding danger. Looking out ahead.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 393
a truly awful spectacle met my gaze. We had already
entered the upper storm region, and were dashing
through it at such a pace that in a few more minutes,
nay, possibly but some few more seconds, we should be
passing through the centre of the spot opening. Then,
directing my eye to that quarter, I could see, through
the flitting intermediate clouds, that the terrible
facula had made most portentous progress towards
that centre, so that it seemed only an even balance
as to which of us was to be there first. We were well
aware that but one touch of the very skirts of this
facula, and all our cross-electric protection was at
once dissolved, and ourselves destroyed — burnt up —
the next instant. What, then, would White do? I
turned imploringly to him, but the reckless man
heeded me not. Kesolute purpose was in his im-
swerving eye. I became desperate, and had a project of
seizing the ruffian by the throat, when, horror upon
horror, I saw the madman grasp, and slash out to its
very fullest, the third electric !
Thereupon it seemed as though, by this fresh shock,
I had been wrenched asunder into a thousand frag-
ments, and, body and mind alike, irrecoverably dissi-
pated over surrounding space. Was I left conscious,
or unconscious '? I know not ; but, at any rate, there
seemed, curiously, to succeed to this terrible convul-
sion the silence and stillness of the very grave. That
particular simile the more readily occurred to me,
because I seemed really to have passed the ordeal of
the narrow home, and to have actually entered the
next world, wherever that might be. But presently a
sweet silvery cadence fell upon my ear. I might have
thought that it savoured of the peace of Paradise,
394 A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE.
were it not that, at once, I recognized it all, as nO'
other than the delicious music of the children we had
so lately left behind us in the sun. Were we then safe
back already to solar terra Jirma? There seemed no
possible mistake in the matter, and I was just turning,
most penitentially, to express my gratitude to our
matchless leader, when another voice, streaming into
my all-attent ears, at once sent myj thoughts into
an entirely different direction, for the solution of the
problem.
Although I failed to catch the precise words, I could
not for one moment doubt the tone. It was indeed no
other than my dearest wife's voice. Were we, then,,
safe at home ? Surely this was so, rather than the
alternative of her having adventured to the sun ta
meet us. If that brave and noble White had just then
stood visible before me, I could have fallen down and
worshipped him.
But now there followed a fresh puzzle. Young
Brown's voice also fell distinctly upon my ears. We
could not possibly be at Mercury, and had he not
waited for us as agreed upon ? and how surjDrising to
find him also here !
How surprising, indeed, it all was ! But un-
questionably we were safe home again, and I made a
sign to young Brown to bring up a bottle of the best
laboratorial vintage, in order to drink a bumper to
White's health. Anon, I prepared myself to meet my
wife, not wishing to put her out of countenance by
any looks of assumption based upon the undoubted
successes of our great expedition. Then my thoughts
dashed off to the promising forthcoming publication,
mingled, however, with the qualifying recollection.
A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. 395
that Brown's full equal share in that matter still stood
good. Another instant and BuUings was in my mind,
and I wondered that he had not already met me here,
or at any rate sent a special message, with a contract
for the sale of the shares at the premium assured to
me. Had the rash fellow still held them on? or was
he merely negligent and ungrateful, and the profit all
mine none the less ? Countless other subjects seemed
to course through my mind with the rapidity of
electro-light speed itself, and at last I settled into the
Green-Brown syndicate, which w^as to make all our
fortunes out of the plunder of the great nebula in
Argo, a satisfaction tempered, however, by the recol-
lection that the greatly reduced brokerage on the job
was to be further diminished by Brown's half share.
I thought with pride and dignity of explaining all
this w^elcome fortune-making to my wife, when all
this current and bustle of thought was at once arrested
by her voice a second time falling upon my ears, and
this time quite distinctly as to the utterance.
" Why, my dear, what has come over you ? You
have been snoring, snorting, and grunting, in that
easy-chair of yours, for the best part of the last half-
hour, and little Maggie has just had to shake you three
times over ere you could be wakened. What's the
good of you and old Skipper White indulging in ideal
trips over this whole mighty world, when even a jaunt
to Brighton knocks you up in this way ! Here we
all are, with tea ready poured out, and only waiting
your saying grace."
In another few seconds I had said grace, and in a
like further short interval I had buried my teeth in a
round of my favourite hot toast, buttered on both sides,
396 A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE.
which our Polly had prepared as usual — my wife,
however, permitting such extravagance only when we
used Cork seconds. Another minute, and I was
exhorting young Brown — who, however, was too pre-
occupied with Polly to pay much heed — to make a
good meal, as we were both to take the early morning
train to Birmingham, in order to begin, sad to say,
all over again, the business tour in the hardware
irade.
And now, in conclusion, it's all very well to profess
to take composedly what comes to us, whether the
up or the down, the great or the small. But I cannot
say I was, all at once, quite reconciled to such
equanimity after two successive tumbles from those
lofty heights over which I had seemed, for a whole
lifetime, to be so successfully careering.
I was thus brooding through our tea-taking, and
in a decidedly grumbling humour, when a thought
suddenly flashed upon me. That projected publica-
tion, which was in fact the backbone of all I had just
experienced, might still prove a surviving reality. I
would write out a full, true, and particular account of
everything just as I saw it and felt it in my late
experiences. And then again, whatever the proceeds,
whether great or small, there was at any rate one
grand consolation, that not one iota of the profit,
not the cent of an Energy of it all, could be claimed
by Brown.
Good reader, I have now duly done all this, and
I hope you have enjoyed the resulting volume, as
indeed you have a right to do after paying your
purchase money. I don't pretend, with worthy old
Brown in his momentary higher mood, to say
A THOUSAND YEAES HENCE. 397
''Bother the profits," for "Business first" remains
with me, as ever, the family motto. Nevertheless,
business duly done with, I have a further purpose to
bring up this other subject before the great S.S.U.D.S.
Many of the experiences might be worth attention, and
some of the best of the ideal progress might be really
attainable, possibly even sooner in reality than in the
dream. I intend, in short, to appeal to the S.S.U.D.S.
to help the promotion of
The Nunsowe-Green Peogramme.
THE END.
LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LI3IIXED,
STAMFOED SXEEET AND CHARING CBOSS.
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 9999 04041 359 1
Boston Public Library
Central Library, Copley Square
Division of
Reference and Research Services
The Date T>ue Card in the pocket indi-
cates the date on or before which this
book should be returned to the Library.
Please do not remove cards from this
pocket.
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